What Happened in Vegas - Really Shouldn't Have
by someonescribblingsomething
Summary: Aria is about to wish that what happened in Vegas had stayed in Vegas, and had not turned up in her classroom in Rosewood.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello. I was going to wait until I wrote the whole story before posting this but I figured I should find out if people like it before carrying on. I am not too sure how many chapters this will be, nothing too long. I'm more plant the seed of the story out there and then leave it a bit open for people to imagine their own endings..if that makes sense. **

**I don't own Pretty Little Liars, Aria or Ezra. I only own a little bit of time this rainy weekend and a little bit of imagination. **

**I hope you enjoy. Sorry for the editing. I am not too sure how to ensure spacing looks ok and I am pretty useless with speech text too (do i start a new paragraph, do i not..oh the decisions).. but anyway hope it's ok...**

**_Flashback_**

_"I can't believe how much stuff you packed for three days Hannah, how was your mother not suspicious of where we were going, or that your were not running away from home?" Spencer commented as she saw Hannah struggling to lift her suitcase on to her bed._

_"I couldn't help it, everything in this suitcase is essential. Anyway, it's my birthday weekend and I need to look my best" Hannah retorted._

_Aria and Emily laughed from their position on the other hotel bed._

_The four girls had told their parents that they were going on a road trip to Spencer's family cabin, instead they had boarded a plane to Las Vegas. Hannah had insisted that she wanted her 18th birthday to be something a bit different. The last one to turn 18 in the group, and with the knowledge this might be one of the last holidays they spent together before college, Hannah had organised fake ID's through Jason DiLaurentis and begged the other girls to agree. School was on break before the final two semesters, so with promises of studying harder after they had a relaxing trip away, each parent had reluctantly agreed._

**_End Flashback_**

Aria groaned as an incessant buzzing woke her after what felt like five minutes of sleep. Her head was pounding from alcohol and the bright sunlight that was streaming in the room. She opened her eyes a little to locate the buzzing noise. A strong arm gripped her waist tighter and she felt lips start kissing her shoulder. She tensed as she realised she was not in her own hotel room before looking back to see who else was in the bed.

"Wow, not bad" she thought to herself as she eyed the handsome face of the guy who was working his way up to kissing her neck. She groaned in pleasure, forgetting the buzzing noise and giving in to the moment.

"Morning" he whispered into her ear, before rolling on top of Aria and finally opening his eyes, smiling as he made eye contact with her.

"Hi" she responded shyly, unable to stop herself from staring into his blue eyes. She bit her lip out of nervousness, unsure of how they had ended up here and whether this was a wise decision on her part, but also internally praising herself for managing to attract such a good looking guy. She hoped the girls had got a good look at him last night, so it wouldn't sound like she was exaggerating when she relayed this back to them. She had really let her hair down last night during this weekend away with the girls. She would never have been so adventurous back in Rosewood, her hometown.

The buzzing continued, but Aria ignored it. Right now, she could not tear herself away from looking at the face inches from hers. There was something about him that made her feel both nervous and completely at ease at the same time.

They both leaned in to kiss each other at the same time. Aria's hands moving up to tangle themselves in his slightly curly brown hair. What started as a soft kiss soon heated up, she groaned as his hands moved across her skin. The moment was shattered by a loud banging on the door, and the voice of Hannah booming from the other side:

"Aria, are you in there? Aria, can you hear me? Why aren't you answering your phone? Ok, I know why you aren't answering but can you stop.. doing that stuff with him and open the door? We have to leave for the airport in 15 minutes. Open the door!"

"Shit" Aria panicked before extracting herself from underneath the muscled body on top of her.

"Yeah Han, I can hear you, give me a second and I'll open the door"

She wildly searched the floor for some clothes so she could open the door, cursing herself at the same time.

"Here, put this on for now" she heard as a t-shirt was thrown towards her.

"Great thanks..umm" Aria responded, unable to stop watching as he sat up and she checked out his toned body.

"Ezra, nice to meet you Aria" he smirked, pulling on a pair of dark boxers.

"Right, Ezra, sorry" Aria replied, mortified at having forgotten his name and at having been caught staring, her face turning red.

"I should umm.. answer the door to my friend" she said taking a deep breath and opening the door to see a stressed Hannah on the other side.

Hannah brushed past Aria into the room before Aria had time to stop her.

"Woah, hello...nice work Aria" Hannah stated bluntly after coming face to face with a half dressed Ezra sat on the edge of the messy bed.

"Hannah! Shut up!". Aria turned to Ezra, she was now a deeper shade of red.

"God I am so sorry, my friend Hannah here has no filter it seems."

Ezra flashed a big grin and stood up to shake Hannah's hand.

"Hi, I'm Ezra. Nice to meet you Hannah, I'm sorry if we met properly last night, things are pretty hazy right now."

"No, I'm sure we didn't meet properly, I'd have remembered you" she smirked.

"Han, please shut up!" Aria shrieked trying to stop Hannah embarrassing her any more. "How did you find me and why are you here?"

"Oh..well as I shouted while you were busy making use of the bed, we need to leave in 15 minutes to catch our flight. Spencer woke up to find McHottie's friend, Harding, Hardy or something…whatever..passed out on your bed. He's waiting for the coast to be clear before coming back to the room. So Aria, sorry to put an end to this seriously hot bonding session but we HAVE to go. Now. The others are waiting in the foyer for us."

"Ok, can you just wait outside and give me two minutes to get myself together and put some clothes on?"

"Ok.. but don't get distracted" Hannah stated as she was being guided to the door by Aria. "Oh..and make sure you get his number."

Aria groaned as she shut the door behind Hannah and leant her head against it, wondering why she was friends with her at times. She slowly turned to face Ezra who was sat clearly amused by Hannah on the edge of the bed.

"So, your friend is ummm… interesting"

"That's one way of putting it I guess. Look I am so sorry to have to leave like this but I really do need to get this flight". Aria offered as she started scanning the room for her belongings.

"I'll make a deal with you. You can borrow that t-shirt in exchange for your phone number. That way you'll have to see me to give it me back. Although it does look great on you.. especially if you are going to keep bending down like that."

Aria laughed and threw a pillow that was discarded on the floor at him.

"I was just being honest, like your friend".

Aria pulled her jeans on and tied her hair up into a bun, throwing all her possessions into her handbag.

"I can't hear clothes being put on in there", Hannah bellowed from outside the door.

Both Aria and Ezra let out a laugh.

Aria tossed Ezra his phone so he could unlock it. She entered her number in for him and dialled her number from the phone. Smiling widely as she handed him back the phone. Ezra stroked her hand and pulled her towards him.

"I am so glad I met you."

Aria gulped as she lost herself in his eyes. She leaned in to kiss him, placing her hands on either side of his face.

"I'm glad I met you too." She responded, reluctantly pulling herself away and taking a deep breath. "I have to go".

Ezra stood and walked to the door with her. As Aria walked away from him, he watched, leaning out of the door, grinning at his luck of having met her.

The girls cheered and clapped as Aria and Hannah joined them in the foyer.

"You, young lady, have some serious dishing of gossip to do". Spencer demanded of Aria.

"I'm not saying anything at all, what happens in Vegas and all that might be so clichéd but I think I am going to have to abide by that" Aria retorted as she gave her a wink and picked up her bags. "Come on, I got dragged out of bed with a seriously hot guy for this flight so we are not missing it now".

All the girls except for Aria fell asleep before take-off, a faint smile on her face as she thought of Ezra.

She reached for her handbag and began rummaging for her makeup bag. As she did so her heart missed a beat as she caught a flash of silver on her left hand.

"No no no no. What.. why is that..." She mumbled to herself.

She touched the ring, it was definitely on her ring finger and it was definitely not there before last night.

"Oh god, I'm going to be sick" she muttered, hastily unbuckling her seat belt and shakily making her way to the bathroom.

"Ok just breathe, this is a joke, it has to be a joke. No-one is that stupid. Of course they are Aria.. Shit! No, this is all just a joke, I would have remembered this happening. He seemed so nice, oh god, was my drink spiked?" Aria continued to ramble away to herself while staring at the ring.

Taking a deep breath she tried to pull herself together, taking the ring off and slipping it into her pocket she decided she was not going to mention this to the girls right now. They couldn't have known or noticed the ring, or they would have said something and she was sure they had would have all been together the night before. This had to be a misunderstanding, she just needed to keep calm and piece together the events of the evening. Clearly she could not be married, Ezra didn't mention it or say anything so obviously this was nothing.

Returning to her seat, Aria sat bolt upright, unable to sleep and determined to recall everything about the evening.

Ezra returned to the bed, cuddling into the pillow that Aria had been sleeping on, inhaling the scent of her that remained. He dozed on and off, hearing Hardy return to the room and turn on the shower.

Ezra rubbed his eyes with his left hand. The feeling of cold metal surprised him. He didn't wear jewellery. Squinting in the light, he was now sure there was a ring on his hand that was not there before last night.

"What the ffff… Shit." Now sitting bolt upright Ezra examined his hand. Yes, there was definitely a ring where no one wants to see one after one night. He simply sat staring at the ring. "We didn't… no there's no way we could have. I am not that stupid. It's ok, there'll be a perfectly normal explanation for it."

Ezra edged the ring off his finger and placed it inside his wallet.

"Hey man.." Hardy said exiting the bathroom in a cloud of steam. "you look like you had a little too much fun last night. You look pretty pale. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm great" Ezra managed to blurt out, trying to ignore the sinking feeling about the ring. "Just tired is all".

"Nice, you and that girl.. Aria was it? I've never seen you so into a girl. You were like a lovesick teenager."

Ezra faked a laugh. "How drunk was I?" he enquired hoping it might shed some light on the night's events.

"You seemed pretty in control last time I saw you. I left you with Aria at some bar about 11 ish. I went clubbing with her friends as you guys wanted to be boring and just keep talking."

"Ah right, so you don't know if I went anywhere else then after that?"

"No sorry dude, why? Did she gamble all your money away? Make you marry her or something?" Hardy joked.

Ezra let out a nervous laugh. "No, no, just wandering. My memory is being a bit vague. Think I need some food in me. You keen?". Ezra decided to get off the topic of last night until he had had time to try and piece together his recollection of events.

"Definitely, our flight's not for a few hours and then it's back to reality for you with that new job starting Monday. Oh, if those kiddies could see their teacher's hangover right now!" Hardy laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello. Thank you so much for all the positive comments, it has made me really nervous now, so maybe I should have waited until I had everything written before posting it all at once. I was really pleased with my first chapter so now I am a bit worried about the rest flowing in the same way. I should have pulled an all-nighter and gone with the flow I had going instead of stopping.**

**I don't know too much about the American school system or even shotgun Vegas weddings..so please excuse any errors. **

**Insert the usual non ownership disclaimer here - neither Aria, Ezra or anything remotely PLL is mine.**

**Thanks for reading, hope I haven't let you down!**

The girls had arrived back in Rosewood late Saturday night. Aria had pretended to be asleep for the ride from the airport back to her parents' house in Spencer's car to avoid any questioning from the girls. Maybe they would forget about Ezra.

Aria was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling, she had fed her mother, Ella, tales of log fires, reading and movie watching instead of the reality of waking up in a Vegas hotel bed with a guy, and then discovering she had potentially married him. If only Hannah had not been so insistent that they secretly go to Vegas instead of Spencer's family's cabin for her birthday celebrations she wouldn't be in this mess. Stupid fake ID cards. When did her and the girls get so good at lying or so keen to?

Aria let out a deep sigh, no, this was her mess, her fault, and she needed to find out exactly what had happened. She had to cling to some hope that the ring was part of some "in the moment" joke her and Ezra had been playing out and she was worrying about nothing at all. Anyway, in reality she might never see him again.

Absentmindedly she picked up her phone and scrolled to her photos. The girls had been taking photos throughout the weekend. Maybe there was something in there to help her remember. She laughed at the photos of her and the girls smiling and posing into the camera. It had been great weekend. She paused as she came across a picture of her and Ezra that one of the girls must have taken when she was not looking, they were both laughing, their heads close together. She looked happy she thought.

Scrolling on, each photo from here on in was of her and Ezra. She remembered that she had remained talking with him in a bar while the girls had gone off with Ezra's friend to go clubbing. There were pictures of them pulling faces, pictures of them smiling into the camera and some of them kissing. Her face reddened at the memory. As Aria scrolled through, she suddenly stopped, she felt as if her heart had stopped too. Here was the evidence she needed and it was not what she wanted to see. The picture showed her stood in front of Ezra. In her right hand she held a bouquet of stunning red roses. Ezra's hands were wrapped around her middle and her own left hand was resting on his. The silver rings clearly visible. There was no mistaking they were both now wearing wedding rings. Reluctant as she was to scroll on through the pictures, she had to. The next few pictures were similar, they looked so happy, or just drunk, she considered. They were kissing and cuddling in various poses in the photos. "Who on earth had taken the photos?" she wondered, it couldn't have been the girls. This was now not looking like it was a joke anymore. Her stomach churned. She was married to a virtual stranger and she was in high school. She ran to her bathroom and proceeded to be sick.

Ezra had returned with Hardy to New York, though he was only going to be there for the night, he was flying out to Pennsylvania in the morning. Late in the week he had received a call asking him if he could cover the final two semesters of a high school English class as the current teacher had had a family emergency and was called away. Having spent the rest of the school year as a substitute teacher here and there to fund his own personal writing, he figured he should take the job to help his resume in case he couldn't find a publisher. The trip to Vegas with Hardy had been Hardy's idea, one last weekend together causing trouble. Or more Hardy causing trouble and Ezra picking up the pieces was how it usually played out.

He had returned to his apartment late, his belongings boxed up ready to be collected in the morning and transported to his new home. He collapsed on his bed and sighed. "What the hell had happened with Aria last night?" he thought. He lay there wondering if he should just text her and see whether she says anything. It had to be a joke and anyway, seeing as he was now going to be living in the same state as her he might get the chance to see her again. There was something about her that made him miss her already.

Pulling out his phone, he stared at the blank text screen for a while, working out what he was supposed to say. He figured he would just go for the casual greeting and see whether she even replied.

_Hi Aria, I hope you made your flight and that you and my t-shirt got home safely. I'm in NY now but I fly out again tomorrow. Sleep well, for some reason I didn't get any last night.. any ideas why? Night. Ezra xoxo_

He pressed send while holding his breath. He hoped he would come across as flirty but genuine. Soon after he fell into a deep sleep still fully clothed on top of his bed. Unaware of whether Aria had replied to his text or not.

Aria heard her phone beep as she sat head in hands on the bathroom floor. Struggling to stand up, she stumbled back into her bedroom unsure of who would be texting her at this time of day. Opening the text she realised it was from Ezra. Her heart pounded through fear and nervousness mixed with the excitement of receiving a text from a guy you liked.

She sat analysing the text. What did he think the ring he was wearing meant? Perhaps they didn't take any photos on his phone, or he had not thought to look. Realising that if she was in fact married to him she was going to need to talk to him at some stage. Someone was going to need to sort a divorce out, and fast. Staring at the blank screen she considered her response. She needed it to sound casual so she didn't scare him off until she felt ready to talk to him properly.

_Hi Ezra, your t-shirt and I got home safely, it still smells of you.. for now. Last night is still so hazy. I think you might have been the bad influence on me. Good luck with your move. Reality returns Monday. Hopefully we can talk soon though. Aria xoxo_

Sunday passed for Ezra in a rush of flights across the country, collecting the keys to his new apartment and unpacking ready to start his new job in the morning. He was concerned he was not prepared enough to take the Senior classes given they would have exams soon, but having glanced through the notes sent to him by the Principal he knew the semester's reading material of To Kill a Mockingbird off by heart anyway.

He had seen the text from Aria as soon as he had woken up. A smile had crossed his face and thoughts of rings and marriage had been forgotten in the chaos of the move. He had decided he would text her once settled in his apartment to try and figure out if they were living close to each other. He recalled that she was considering becoming a teacher too.

Aria had spent her Sunday organising her schoolwork ready for the start of semester, only two more to go before university. She re-read her assignments and buried her head in her favourite book, To Kill a Mockingbird, only leaving her room to grab some snacks from the kitchen. Ella assumed she must be nervous about the final months of school and the exams that would decide her fate, so she left her to her own company.


	3. Chapter 3

**Greetings again... Thank you for your lovely words. I hope you enjoy the next instalment. :0)**

Aria and the girls walked together through the school to their lockers. They had most of their classes together.

"So Aria, have you heard from naked guy since we got back?" Hannah quizzed.

"His name is Ezra and he wasn't naked" she responded.

"I saw enough of the package to know what he'd be like naked."

"Han, really..can you just not say stuff like that about him."

"Ok, ok, you're touchy. I take it you haven't heard from _Ezra_ then or maybe you have and you are just being protective, now..which is it?"

"I have heard from him and that is all I am saying. Come on we'll be late for English, I hear we have some new teacher for the rest of the year."

Aria let out a breath at having escaped the inquisition, for now. Her phone beeped with a new text from Ezra. She had not heard from him the day before, but presumed he had been too busy to contact her. She really needed to talk to him, soon. She sat in her seat and quickly opened the text.

_Morning! I hope your back to reality is going better than mine. I'm running late for my first day and the coffee has yet to kick in. I am now living in a town called_

Before Aria could finish reading the text, the door to the classroom opened and the new teacher hurried in, Aria quickly leant down to put her phone in her bag, not wanting to get into trouble already, she would finishing reading the text and reply to him later.

The new teacher had his back to the class as he placed his bag on his desk and extracted some papers.

"Ok everyone, take your seats. Sorry I'm late. I am your new English teacher, Mr. Fitz."

Aria gasped as the new teacher spun around and she locked gazes with the same mesmerising blue eyes she been staring into days before.

"No, no, no this is not happening", Aria quietly mumbled to herself.

She heard Hannah let out a chuckle. Aria snapped out of staring at Ezra to shoot her a death glare, hoping she would understand that she had to stop drawing attention to her.

Ezra had turned a similar shade of pale to Aria, when he had heard her gasp upon his turning around. He leant back against the desk and mumbled "oh god, what have I done?" Realising there was a class of 20 students staring at him, he cleared his throat and stammered out the rest of his introduction. He clocked Hannah, grinning at him and realised she was also sat by Emily and Spencer, whose faces he now remembered from the bar.

"_Oh god a bar! I was in a bar with underage drinkers and slept with one of them. Am I going to jail? Oh god the ring.."_ Ezra's mind was racing while he tried to act calm and talk through the next couple of semesters to the class. Aria had now rested her head on her hand, completely avoiding looking up at him. This helped him continue as looking at her face would have given him away completely.

He set the class the task of reading the first chapter in silence while he organised himself. Glad of the excuse to not have his emotions on show to the class for a few minutes. He quickly stepped outside the classroom door and closed it. He needed the cool air and the quiet of the corridor for a second. He leaned back against the door and tried to steady his breathing.

"Have they got you beat already?" a passing teacher enquired.

Ezra merely forced a smile back.

Once he felt he was in control, he tried to walk confidently back into the classroom. He glanced over at Aria to see that she was still looking down at the desk and avoiding him. The rest of the lesson passed by in a haze, the bell snapping him out of his trance.

Aria was torn. Should she rush out and not speak to him or go slow and remain behind? She bit her lip and she risked looking up at Ezra who was leaning against his desk watching the class pack up. She gave him a faint smile that he returned back.

"Are you coming Aria?" Emily asked, standing by her desk holding her files.

"Ummm you guys go ahead, I just need to get some forms signed off." Aria replied. She had to face the inevitable.

Hannah, Emily and Spencer walked passed Ezra at the front of the class.

"Thanks… _Mr. Fitz!_" Hannah grinned. Ezra gave her a weak smile in response.

"What was that about?" Spencer questioned Hannah.

"Don't you recognise _Mr. Fitz_at all? What are the chances? Aria's Vegas lover is our new teacher." She let out another chuckle.

"Oh god, the guy from the bar, Han you need to shut up and not say anything about this. Do you know how much trouble Aria will get in, and us for that matter? This goes no further. Do you hear me Han? No joking about this right now." Spencer stated.

"Ok ok, fine. But she is not getting away without giving us details after school. That man is mighty fine."

The girls watched from afar as Ezra looked out the classroom door and closed it. Leaving him and Aria inside.


	4. Chapter 4

**Happy Friday everyone.. I hope you all have lovely days. Thank you for reading my story. **

**Enjoy… I hope..**

Aria had walked to the front of the room to stand by Ezra's desk. Still looking down she was struggling to bring herself to make eye contact. Taking a deep breath she lifted her head to face him.

Ezra was leant against the desk, his hand rubbing across his face to try and relieve some of the tension in it.

They both stared into each other's eyes unable to say anything. Neither knowing how to ask the other all the questions that were starting to mount in their minds.

Ezra broke first, his voice coming out more of a croak than his normal volume and tone.

"So, just to be clear _Aria_**, **how old are you?"

"Umm I'm 18."

"Right.. and I met you in a bar and you were drinking. How were you even in a bar in Vegas in the first place? I'm just trying to figure out whether I am facing jail time here" Ezra questioned trying to remain calm but also beginning to sound a little angry.

"Well, it was Hannah's birthday weekend, she turned 18 as she is the youngest and wanted something big. She got us some fake IDs and well then things seemed to have got seriously messed up."

Ezra snorted a little, "Fake IDs, of course. I can see how it would have been Hannah who started this mess that I can agree on." Ezra rubbed his hand across his face again.

"I am so sorry Ezra, what are the chances that you were going to end up teaching my class. It was a girls' weekend away and this… " Aria hesitated unsure of how to word their situation, "this..thing between us was never supposed to happen. I didn't plan to meet a guy in a bar. I'm not that kind of a girl I swear. Then for him to end up being my teacher.. I mean God what kind of bad luck is that?"

Ezra looked at Aria, he didn't know what to say or to think right now. He couldn't draw himself away from her eyes. The thought of the ring came into his head. He needed to ask her about it.

Just as Ezra opened his mouth to ask her, the door to the classroom opened. Aria and Ezra jumped a little. Ezra cleared his throat and stood up straight.

"Oh hi, sorry to disturb you, I'm Ella Montgomery, the other English teacher here. I thought I should stop by and introduce myself. I see you have already met my daughter, Aria."

Ezra stood there unable to move or say anything. _Aria's mother works here, oh god I am so dead, can I go to jail? Why do I not know this? Why can I not think what crime I am about to charged with? Have I committed any? No one will care, I might as well have._

Ella and Aria looked expectantly at Ezra for a response. He just stood there looking stunned.

Aria broke the silence, "Umm thanks for your help Mr. Fitz on that question. I should get going to my next class."

Ezra snapped out of his trance. "Right yes, no problem, glad to help. Mrs Montgomery, sorry I was miles away, it's really nice to meet you".

"Oh, please call me Ella."

Ezra forced his feet to move towards her and offer her his hand. Hoping his hands were not sweaty from the ridiculous stress he had just come under. He saw Aria glance back as she exited the room, giving him a slight smile before turning and leaving the room.

She pulled her phone out of her bag and read the end of Ezra's earlier text:

_Morning! I hope your 'back to reality' is going better than mine. I'm running late for my first day and the coffee has yet to kick in. I am now living in a town called Rosewood. Do you know it? Talk soon, Ezra xoxo_

Aria sighed and fought back the desire to cry or maybe even laugh hysterically at her luck as she walked down the halls to find the others. "Did she know Rosewood? Ha! Mild understatement there Ezra." She thought.

Once Ella had left the classroom, Ezra shut the door and leaned back against it, how was he going to survive until the end of the year. Maybe he could tell the Principal he had an emergency and couldn't stay in the job. Ezra sighed as he knew he would not have the guts to do that. Ezra was too loyal and hated letting people down. He was stuck here. He just needed to clear the air with Aria and steer clear of her from now on. No one needed to find out. It was only two semesters and some of that would be exam time so surely it wouldn't be too bad.

"This town had better have a bar." Ezra thought to himself before conceding that it was drinking that got him in this mess in the first place.

Aria had reluctantly agreed to go to Spencer's after school. At lunch she had refused to say anything about her conversation with Ezra too scared that someone might overhear them. She was torn as to whether to say anything about the ring and photos to them. Figuring maybe she needed to talk to Ezra first. It was probably for the best that the only people who knew were Ezra and herself for now.

The other girls were already sat around looking at magazines and painting their nails as Aria entered. She knew tonight she was the main attraction and there was no gossip from the first day or in fact probably the whole school year that was going to upstage her situation right now. Failing someone getting pregnant of course, "Should I be grateful that I am not the unfortunate pregnant high school kid, just the married one?" Aria thought.

"Hey Aria, how are you?" Emily smiled at her as she sat down.

Aria knew Emily was the easy going one of their group and was not going to be the one to be buying into the gossip of her situation.

"Hey. I'm… I don't even know what I am right now Em, how did this happen? How am I meant to feel when I meet an amazing guy in a bar on a fun weekend in another state and he ends up being my teacher. He probably now thinks everything between us was a complete lie and I am stuck staring at him from behind a high school desk."

Emily hugged Aria as the tears began to appear in her eyes.

"It's ok Aria, you've done nothing wrong."

"Well technically she did lie." Spencer cut in. "She was in a bar drinking underage, what age was he supposed to think she was?"

"True but not helping Spence. Unless you told him your age, and he didn't care? He was hardly trying to assess the chances that you'd be in one of his classes at the time was he? He was thinking with his other brain. You looked smoking Aria. He didn't stand a chance." Hannah offered.

"His "other brain"!?..seriously Han?" Spencer looked at her and rolled her eyes.

"What? His 'Big Fitz', 'Big Ezra'..hmm neither sounds quite right..but anyway.. it would have been calling the shots" Hannah smirked.

"Please dear god can we not start naming his appendage and come back to the reality that he is in fact now our teacher and I do not want to be thinking of the words "Big Fitz" during AP English?" Spencer responded with a horrified look on her face.

Hannah let out a small chuckle before remembering Aria was upset.

"What did Mr. Fitz, I mean Ezra say when you spoke to him earlier?" Emily asked.

"Not much, he was too stunned and concerned he was going to jail to say too much. Oh, and then add my mother walking in on us talking to the equation and the poor guy nearly passed out."

"Well as far as I see it, it's only going to come down to conflict of interest with him being your teacher or something like that. You are 18, he is over 18. You both had no way of knowing that you would ever meet again in these circumstances and well, so long as you don't do it again, then where's the harm? Right?" Spencer tried to reason.

"Well I think it's hot". Hannah stated.

"Han, again not helping." Spencer countered.

Aria nodded taking in what Spencer had said, though knowing she was keeping the biggest part of the issue to herself.

"I should go. I said I'd be home for dinner." Aria said, "Thank guys, please don't say anything to anyone about this, we are not to talk about this in school at all."

Ezra lay on his leather couch staring at the ceiling trying to figure out just how much trouble he could be in. He had come to much the same conclusion as Spencer had offered Aria. That whilst she was underage drinking, she was 18 and there was no reason to ever believe their paths would cross like this at the time. Surely that was reasonable. That just left the mystery of the ring. He pulled it out of his wallet and turned it over and over with his fingers.

It was a nice ring. It wasn't a cheap cut. This made him more confused. Why would he have an expensive ring as part of a joke? Perhaps they found it somewhere and had drunkenly kept it rather than handing it in.

Sighing deeply he rubbed his hand through his hair before inspiration hit him. Getting up off the couch and grabbing his laptop Ezra logged on to his bank account. Perhaps he could see where he had spent money that night.

Waiting for the page to load Ezra jiggled his leg rapidly, a nervous habit he had. Taking a deep breath, he scrolled back to the dates for the weekend. He could see the charges for several bars and restaurants. He then noticed a large bill for a jeweller. Ezra placed his head in his hands and tried to take deep breaths.

After some time, he forced himself to look back at the screen and to keep scrolling. Sure enough the next charges were a florist and then the defining ones of_ Clark County Marriage Bureau_ and a chapel fee.

Now Ezra really knew he had gone pale, placing his head once again in his hands.

He didn't know how long he had sat there until the beep of his phone pulled him from his trance.

Aria had made it through the family dinner unscathed, responding to both Ella and Byron's questions on her school day with little enthusiasm.

"So Mr. Fitz seems nice Aria, bit nervous I suppose being his first day." Ella said between mouthfuls of dessert.

"Yeah he is" Aria responded quietly. "Can I be excused now? I have some homework to do."

"Sure honey."

Aria quickly escaped the kitchen, not wanting to have any conversations with her parents about _Mr. Fitz. _She was already upstairs by the time Ella had proposed to Byron that they should invite him to dinner, seeing as he would not know anyone in town.

Aria sat at her desk staring at her phone. Should she text Ezra and apologise again or leave it for him to come to her? She decided she had to try to talk to him properly, what if he knew something about the ring.

_Hi Ezra. So that was a rough first day! I am sorry I didn't tell you my age. I had no idea I would even see you again let alone this. Please don't hate me. I really need to talk to you though, it's important. _

Aria debated whether to put the "xoxo" on the end of her message. She left it off not wanting to push him at all.

Ezra looked at his phone and saw Aria's name on his screen. He re-read her message a few times before going to reply. They had to talk, that was now clear and it was not the kind of talk he wanted to have in his classroom where her mother could walk in.

_Hey, that was definitely not the first day I was expecting or how I had wanted to see you again. I could never hate you and this is not your fault. Please don't think that. I agree we need to talk, properly. I have meetings after school all this week. Any chance you are free Friday night? Ezra xoxo_

Sighing and pressing send, he cursed himself for adding the 'xoxo' out of habit. There was no going back now though. He'd have to get through one class with her on Friday and then they could figure out what to do from there.

Within a minute he had a reply from Aria.

_Friday night is good for me. Let me know where and when. Night Ezra xoxo_

Ezra found himself smiling, and groaned. No, this was not a date, he reminded himself. Without this mess he would have been so happy to go on a proper date with her even at 18, it was only 4 years younger than him, but thinking like that was not going to help him concentrate on staying away from her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello again.. I hope you enjoy the next instalment, thank you for your kind reviews. I am trying to keep well ahead in writing this story so that I always have plenty to post. **

**I hope you have a lovely day :0)**

The week had passed by fairly quickly. Ezra had emailed the chapel in Las Vegas to try and get a copy of the marriage certificate and anything else they had on file. He had felt such a clichéd idiot having to contact them for it. They had responded advising they would put the items in the mail and he would receive them on the Friday. Just another drunken statistic to them. At least now he would have the evidence to show Aria and they could make any decision from there. Making it through an hour class with her not knowing was going to be excruciating though, he felt that it was wrong that he was in effect hiding this from her all week, but it was not something he could just casually bring up.

Ezra sat relishing the peace and quiet before his next class, the class that contained Aria. Sipping his coffee and reading a newspaper, he was pretty much unaware that he was doing his nervous leg jiggling as the class started to arrive. He heard Aria's laugh before she entered the room surrounded by the other girls. She gave him a small smile before heading to the back of the class. Ezra couldn't help but stare at her, his coffee held mid air.

Ezra heard a small chuckle come from Hannah, who was watching him, causing him to redden.

Aria kept her head down for the class, allowing Ezra to imagine she was not there, and relax to his normal teaching style.

"Ok, Hemingway wrote a six word story. 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn'. Beautiful yet heartbreaking words. I want you to write me three, six word stories. The themes you can use are; love, loss or regret. So choose one of each or three of the same.. it's up to you. Guys, that's a whole 18 words I want you to write, I may sound like I am being extremely easy on you but I am expecting some effort. Oh, and I can Google with the best of them so no copying anything from the internet. That's a wrap guys, have a good weekend, you are free to go." Ezra concluded. He had actually enjoyed himself.

Aria slowly gathered her papers together, making sure she was the last to leave. Approaching Ezra's desk she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Hey, so are we still ok for tonight?" she asked nervously.

"Yes, definitely. Are you sure you can cover for where you will be?"

"I usually stay at one of the girls' on Fridays so it's fine I'll head there afterwards. I will come over about seven if that's ok?"

"Great, can't wait.. I mean.. it's good we can talk outside of here." Ezra stammered, embarrassed at his inability to form an intelligent sentence around Aria.

"I'll see you later then." Aria bit her lip before realising this was not a date and she really needed to concentrate on how she was going to bring up the small fact that she might be his wife.

Aria checked herself in the mirror for the thousandth time. No excuse not to make an effort she thought. She checked she had put the ring in her wallet. It looked a very expensive ring and it was definitely one she would wear. She wanted to make sure she gave it back to Ezra.

Rushing down the stairs, she yelled to her parents that she was going to Spencer's and she would be back around lunchtime the next day. They were completely oblivious to their daughter's lies. Aria had warned Spencer that she would be with Ezra and that she would go round straight after. Telling her they just needed to clear the air and agree to stay away from each other.

Ezra rushed around his apartment attempting to tidy up and clear boxes out of the way before Aria arrived. Despite his attempts to convince himself this was not a date, he couldn't bring himself to not try and make everything perfect. Part of him still clung to the thought that without this job he would have given anything to convince her to go on a date with him. He had dressed casually in a light grey top with pale jeans.

He glanced around the studio apartment, the package from Vegas sitting unopened on the coffee table, before hearing a light knock on the door.

Aria stood biting her lip on the other side.

"Hi"

"Hi." Ezra replied unable to move. "Umm sorry, come in."

Taking Aria's coat and bag and placing them on a nearby chair, he watched as she scanned the apartment, appraising her surroundings.

"It's strange I barely know you, but this place feels like yours already."

"You associate me with an array of half empty boxes and mismatched furniture? Should I be offended?" Ezra laughed.

"No, that's not what I meant." Aria laughed, "It's almost like there's a relaxing familiarity to it, maybe because it reminds me of my own room, books and prints everywhere. It's great. I love it. I mean.. sorry I shouldn't say that."

Ezra smiled. He relished her approval.

"No, I'm glad you like it. I spent a lot of time making it look this disorganised for you!"

They both laughed, easing some of the nervous tension. Before sitting on the battered brown leather couch. Taking an end each.

"So how's your week been?" Aria asked unsure of how to bring up Vegas.

"Unlike any other." Ezra replied, with a faint smile. He ran his hand through his messy hair, his other lay stretched across the back of the couch. "My weekend started in such a great way. I met you; this beautiful, intelligent, heart-stopping girl, I don't think I even care what age you are to be honest but we've got a problem. I… I think.. I don't even know how to say what I need to say."

"I think I know what you want to have to say Ezra. I left Vegas with something and maybe you know that too." Aria stood up and went over to her bag, pulling out her wallet and phone before returning to the couch.

Taking a deep breath, Aria pulled the ring out of her wallet.

"I have something to show you, I…" Aria's voice wobbled as she struggled to say the words that were stuck in her throat. She looked up at Ezra and knew she would not be able to say it aloud. Tears forming in her eyes, she slowly opened her palm to show the ring.

Ezra watched as Aria tried to hold herself together. It took him a few seconds to draw his eyes away from her face and down to the shiny diamond ring in her hand.

Tears began to freely flow from Aria's eyes. Ezra slid along the couch closer to her. He couldn't sit there and watch her fall apart when he was to blame. He placed his hand around her palm and stroked her hand. His other hand, brushed the hair out of her face and his thumb tried to wipe away her tears.

"I will sort this, Aria, I promise you. Please don't cry. Come here.' Ezra pulled Aria towards him.

Aria rested her head on Ezra's shoulder, releasing all the emotions she hadn't realised she was suppressing. She felt safe in his arms as he stroked her hair. His smell bringing back memories of when they had met. She felt him lean down to kiss the top of her head.

"I'm here for you with this Aria. I'll make it right."

Aria lifted her head to his and gave him a faint smile.

"I haven't told anyone, the girls I mean. I didn't think that would be fair on you until we had spoken."

"Thanks, I appreciate that. I think we need to sort this out ourselves and perhaps you can enlighten them when you are ninety or something, or during a drinking game of 'never have I ever'?"

Aria let out a chuckle. She didn't know why but she actually felt relaxed about the situation. Ezra's calm nature made her feel completely at ease, despite the absolute hell that would be unleashed if her parents found out.

"I found some photos on my phone from that night if you want to see them?" Aria asked, sitting up to grab up phone from the table before nestling back next to Ezra. Both forgetting their pledge to themselves for it to be a more formal talk.

Ezra took the phone from Aria and smiled at the night's earlier pictures. The ones where they were just two people flirting in a bar.

"It was a good night, we look happy". Ezra said as he scrolled.

As he reached the pictures of him and Aria posing after their wedding, he remained silent. Taking in the images, beginning to recall having posed for the pictures now. The final image showed Ezra holding his arm up to take the photo of him kissing Aria's cheek from above, they were lying on his hotel bed. They really did look happy he thought.

"I emailed the chapel, they sent that package over there. I haven't had chance to open it yet. Want to face the cold hard truth together?"

Aria nodded. "Why is it such a big package? Is this going to be like The Hangover where we have mugs and t-shirts with our just married faces on to share with our supportive friends and family?"

"Now why would you think we would be that crazy..and tacky, we are clearly much better than that?"

They both laughed.

"OK let's get this done with, it's like ripping the band aid off right?" Aria said.

Tearing open the parcel Ezra pulled out a marriage certificate. Recognising his signature on the page alongside the swirl of Aria's. Sure enough she had written her date of birth correctly.

Also enclosed were a set of photographs from the ceremony. There was no hoping now that it was a joke. Ezra had a wife. Aria had a husband.

Tears once again formed in Aria's eyes. How did she get herself in this mess? How did she go from flirting in a bar with a guy to being his wife in the space of a few hours?

Ezra pulled Aria into a hug again as she cried. Appearing calm but internally completely lost at how to handle this.

"How did this happen? How did we even decide to get married? I'm 18 and what I suddenly wanted to be a housewife or something? What was I thinking and why did you agree?" Aria ranted.

"Steady…who said anything about being a housewife? Does this apartment look like the place to be a housewife..and anyway why did _you_ agree?"

This made Aria smile a little.

"It'll be ok Aria, we had a momentary lapse of reason, decided to do something completely crazy and now we have to deal with that. We'll look into annulments or divorce or something. This can be undone Aria"

"I know.. it's just, did you ever think that when you got married it was going to be forever? The dream never involved marrying a stranger, and then being divorced at 18."

"I want the forever Aria, of course I do. We just made a mistake that in years to come, of course you'll remember it, but it won't matter because you'll have met the guy you want to marry and nothing we did in the past will change or affect that."

Ezra rubbed his hands across Aria's back, placing kisses on the top of her head.

"I'll do some research on annulments and divorces and see where we stand ok? Unless you are planning on taking half my assets, then how hard can it be? Celebrities do it all the time"

"Half your assets? Seriously?" Aria asked amused by the comment.

"Hey, this couch is pretty great you know, and I saw you eyeing up all the books in here. You might leave me chair-less and stuck reading the flyers in the mailbox for entertainment for all I know."

Aria shoved Ezra so he fell back on the couch. She loved how he managed to make her smile despite the circumstances. Ezra reached out and grabbed Aria, pulling her towards where he lay. She rested her head on his chest as she ran her hands across his toned abs. Ezra wrapped his arm around her as their legs entwined. His hand stroking the little piece of exposed skin where her top met her jeans.

They lay in silence, hiding from the world and the lies they needed to tell.

Aria turned and propped her chin on Ezra's chest to face him.

"Thank you for being so calm and in control of this. I needed that".

Ezra smiled and ran a hand through her hair. Lost in her eyes again.

Neither knew who moved first but the kiss was happening. It was slow, like they were savouring it. Like they had all the time in the world together. They fitted.

The moment was ruined by the sound of Aria's phone ringing. Snapping them out of their slowly increasing heated actions.

"That'll be Spencer wondering where I am.. maybe I should go, before we.. you know..make a mistake."

"Right, yes..that's a good idea. Sorry.. we.. I got carried away, forgot who we were."

"Hey, don't apologise ok, I'm here making decisions too. It felt right."

"It did.. it shouldn't thought right?." Ezra replied, feeling the guilt build in him at having completely abandoned his plan to make a pact to stay away from each other. "Will you be ok getting to Spencer's?"

"Yeah I'll be fine, I'll text you and let you know I'm ok." Aria replied putting on her coat.

"Thanks for coming over, I'll do what I can to make this mess go away for you." Ezra replied struggling to make eye contact as he walked her to the door.

Aria leaned up and kissed him softly, he responded with ease, both pulling apart before it got heated.

"I'll text you, we'll talk soon ok?" Aria said as she left the apartment.

Ezra nodded and closed the door behind her. Exhaling deeply. "I need a cold shower and my head read."

Aria arrived at Spencer's 10 minutes later, unsure whether she wished they had not been interrupted or whether she just wanted to be alone and to not have to talk about Ezra right now.

"Hi Spence, sorry to worry you."

"That's ok, I just needed to know you were ok. So how did it go? Did you set some boundaries or anything?"

Aria thought about the question, they had certainly crossed more boundaries than they had set down.

"It went ok, I think. He's really great guy, it just really sucks that of all the high schools he has to end up at mine. It just wasn't meant to be right?"

"The rest of the school year is too important to get yourself into trouble with a teacher Aria. It's not worth it." Spencer warned, sensing Aria might not be entirely being truthful as to how much she liked Ezra.

"Yeah, definitely.. it's not worth it." Aria said forcing a smile at Spencer. "So shall we watch a movie?"

Aria pulled her phone out to text Ezra as Spencer made them popcorn.

_Hey, I got to Spencer's ok. Thanks for tonight. Sleep well. Aria xoxo. P.s. I promise I won't take half your assets :0)_


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi.. So a big thank you for making me aware that there was potentially another Aria/Ezra Vegas story out there. I have contacted a couple of people to check my story is ok with them though I don't think the premise is the same, fingers crossed it will be ok, or I will take it down straight away.. so just a warning.. **

**Anyway.. for now onwards... Longish chapter as I was being indecisive of where I could cut it.. Just means I need to write a bit faster to have plenty of backup. **

**Thanks for your support, enjoy.**

Ezra woke late on Saturday morning. He had barely slept for thinking about Aria. He was battling the part of his brain that couldn't get enough of her against the part that told him this could only end in hurt and trouble unless he sorted the divorce and stayed away from her.

He spotted Aria's ring on the coffee table, he hadn't realised she had left it behind, picking it up and turning it over between his fingers. He placed it on the bedside table with his own ring. He had a wife in this strange reality where he barely knew her and where they could not wear their rings even if they wanted to.

He needed to get out of the apartment and keep himself busy. Deciding to go and find a bookstore and a coffee, he grabbed his bike and sunglasses.

Aria and Spencer had walked into town to meet Emily and Hannah for lunch. The girls sat at a table outside The Grille chatting about Noel Kahn's house party the following week. As much as they did not like him, in typical high school fashion, that was not going to stop them from going.

"So Aria, maybe Jason will be there, you know he likes you…" Hannah said. "Actually what I am thinking, I spy something beginning with F coming our way".

The girls looked at her puzzled until they realised Ezra was pushing his bike in their direction, coffee cup in hand and bookstore bag hanging from the handlebars.

"Hi Mr. Fitz." Hannah shouted loudly.

Ezra hadn't spotted the girls until this point. He took a deep breath and cursed small towns, before continuing on his path towards them.

"Hi girls." He said with a smile, trying not to linger too long looking at Aria.

"So where's home for you Mr. Fitz?" Hannah pressed.

"Uhh.. New York." Ezra replied.

"What a coincidence, Aria is hoping to go to Columbia next year, aren't you Aria?" Hannah smirked.

Aria turned red. "Yeah, hopefully, they have a great English and journalism course I hear."

"They do. I just graduated from there." Ezra responded, grinning at Aria. "You'll really like it there. I still live pretty close to the campus."

"Maybe you two will bump into each other then in New York, stranger things have happened right.. " Hannah added right before Aria kicked her under the table.

"Ignore her, way too much coffee." Aria said, completely embarrassed.

Ezra laughed. "Right, well umm I should go anyway. Books to read and all that, see you Monday girls. Bye Aria..i mean bye girls."

Aria rested her head in her hands. "Han, you cannot tease him like that."

"Ok, ok, but it's not a bad thing that he is only a sub teacher, he'll be heading back to New York right about the time you get your freedom and move there yourself."

The thought had just crossed Aria's mind, but she wasn't going to admit that to Hannah.

Ezra figured he would head over to the Hollis college grounds and find a tree to sit under. As he rode through the town, he spotted a jeweller's. A thought suddenly occurred to him and for the second time in a week he found himself going inside.

Ezra sat alone eating his lunch and reading in the corner of the cafeteria. He could see Aria seated with her friends at another table. He tried to not look across at her too often, he couldn't help himself despite his best efforts. He wished he could just talk to her in public. He wished he was not her teacher, she was the only person he really knew in this town. She was his wife, not that it meant anything. He sighed and returned to prodding his lunch, having lost his appetite.

"The food is pretty bad here isn't it". Ella had approached Ezra's table without him noticing. "Mind if I join you?"

"Uhh..no no, please have a seat." Ezra stammered.

"How's it going? New town, new job?"

"Yeah, it's going ok.. it's tough but the kids are great so that's making it easier. Rosewood seems a nice place, it's not New York but I think I could get used to the pace of life here."

"Well I was wondering if you wanted to come over for dinner tomorrow. My husband Byron teaches in the English faculty at Hollis, he'd love to meet you."

"Umm would Aria mind, it might be awkward for her?" Ezra asked trying desperately to think of a reason to decline the offer.

"Oh no, she'll be fine, she's used to it by now with both her parents being teachers."

"Right, well I guess that's a yes then, thank you for the offer, that's very kind of you." He replied with a forced smile.

"Great so tomorrow it is." Ella smiled at him warmly before getting up to leave.

Ezra gave Aria a weak smile before leaving the cafeteria to prepare for his next lesson, his class with Aria.

"Right settle down everyone, now I am going to get each of you to read out some of your six word stories before you write me three more here and now, and then hand them in." Ezra advised as the class started moaning.

"Noel, let's start with you shall we.. let's hear what you have come up with."

Noel stood up, smirk on his face and addressed the class "Homecoming queen spread legs for votes." (_from sixwordstory . com)_

The class erupted into laughter.

"Quiet please.. Mr Kahn whilst I congratulate your ability to count to six, your choice of words and topic is less than appealing. Oh.. and another thing.. I am fairly sure I mentioned I can Google with the best of them.. nice try."

It was now Ezra's turn to smirk. Earning a chuckle from the rest of the class. Ezra worked his way around the students, getting them to read their words. Aria was up next. Ezra felt his mouth go dry, knowing that the room would be silent but for the sound of her voice.

Aria didn't stand, instead choosing to remain seated. She recited her stories without referring to the papers in front of her, locking eyes with Ezra as she said the words.

"Happiness is just outside my window" (_borrowed from The Fray)_

"Do you feel alone? I do" (_adapted myself from sixwordstory . com)_

Ezra gulped, it was like she was aiming every word at him, reading his mind. He nodded slightly to signal her to go on.

"To tell the truth.. I lied." (f_rom sixwordstory . com)_

Ezra was realised the class was waiting for him to speak. Hannah's chuckle once again broke him from his trance.

"Aria, great work.. really great." He quickly said. "Ok, well I need you all to give me three more stories and hand all your work in to me. Whilst you do that I will hand out the next big assignment on To Kill a Mockingbird, which will need to be longer than six words."

Aria had already written more than the required three stories on the weekend, so she sat there trying to decide which to use. All felt very personal to her and Ezra, she wondered if he realised that.

As Ezra walked past her desk, he placed the assignment sheet upside down on her desk, tapping it. Confused, she picked it up and turned it over, noticing he had written in pencil on the bottom a note to her

"_My six word story to you;_

_Your mother invited me to dinner."_

Aria looked up to see Ezra give her a weak smile and a shoulder shrug. She nodded back and sighed, getting back to writing her stories. In the end she chose to write those directly associated to Ezra and her situation. No one else would see. Taking pen to paper she began to write directly to him.

_You could mean the world to me._

_We are each other's biggest secret. _

_Only time will tell our fate _

_She was proud to tell everyone. _

_They held hands. Repeating I do _

_Two strangers forget their drunken promises (adapted from sixwordstory . com)_

She decided to put one more for Ezra. She knew he would have figured out by now everything she was referring to

_I will never regret meeting you. _

Aria knew she was putting herself on the line, they hadn't really set any boundaries and whilst she knew it was wrong for her to pursue Ezra, she couldn't let go of the thought that in every other circumstance she would be dating him right now.

The end of class bell sounded. The noise of scraping chairs and laughter filled the room. The students filed to the front handing their papers in to Ezra. Ezra's hand brushing Aria's as she handed the paper over. Neither moving.

"Uh Aria, you can let go of the paper now" Hannah laughed behind her.

"Right yes, sorry." Ezra and Aria both turned bright red.

Out in the corridor Hannah and the other girls broke into laughter.

"Your story might as well have been _I want to have your babies_ with the amount of tension between you too. I'd say get a room but you've already done that" Spencer added joining in the fun.

"Leave her alone guys" Emily warned. "Don't worry about them Aria, they're just jealous."

Back in the classroom, Ezra stuffed the papers into his bag. He wanted to read Aria's submission but decided torturing himself on school grounds was not wise. Deciding that he would read it later when he had a drink in his hand. He knew she was aiming the words at him. How was he supposed to survive dinner with her family.. technically now his family, the "in-laws".

Ezra stopped at the bottle shop to find something to take to dinner, he had already picked up flowers for Ella. He had got distracted looking at roses in the store remembering the pictures of him and Aria on her phone. He should get her to send them to him. There was no harm in wanting copies himself was there? He thought.

Picking up a bottle of red wine. He paid and made his way back to his car. Would it be too much to hope that Aria had managed to escape the dinner he wondered, but then he didn't know if was worse for her to be there or to have to face her parents alone.

Aria had tried to say she was going to Emily's but Ella had insisted she had to be at dinner, saying Ezra barely knew anyone and she wanted him to feel welcome, especially as Mike was out at lacrosse training. Aria went upstairs to pick out a dress, she might as well look nice for the night of awkwardness.

Ezra stood on the doorstep trying to summon the courage to knock. The door suddenly opened, revealing Aria on the other side. She smiled at him.

"I could see your shadow on the other side. I thought I had better check you were ok, you hadn't moved in a while."

"Right, sorry, just a bit nervous. You look amazing." He said before realising what he had said.

"Thanks, not bad yourself" Aria smiled eying Ezra up and down. He was wearing a jacket over a fitted pale blue button down shirt with a thin black tie and black jeans. Aria wished she could kiss him, she bit her lip at the thought.

"Aria, don't leave Ezra standing on the doorstep, invite him in" she heard her mother say as she approached the door.

"Right, yes sorry, come in, welcome to my.. our home." Aria said as she moved to allow Ezra to enter.

"Hello Ella, thank you again for having me, these are for you." Ezra said handing over the flowers and wine.

"Oh Ezra, you didn't need to do that, we are a very informal family, but thank you." Ella replied.

"Aria, can you take Ezra's coat and show him to the lounge, Byron is in there". Ella said as she disappeared into the kitchen out of sight.

Ezra edged his jacket off before approaching Aria. "Check the inside pocket" he whispered to Aria.

Aria nodded and led him to the lounge doorway. "Dad, this is uhh Ez..Mr. Fitz"

Ezra took a deep breath before shaking the hand of his "wife's" father. He felt like he was sweating from every pore, wondering if Byron could tell what he had done with his daughter. Ezra mentally berated himself, he would never survive the evening if he kept thinking like that. Byron would never find out, well not tonight and hopefully not ever Ezra thought.

"It's nice to meet you Byron, thank you for inviting me over." Ezra stated nervously.

"Oh, you're welcome, it's always nice to meet Ella's colleagues. Take a seat and I'll get you a drink." Byron replied.

Aria reached into the pocket of Ezra's coat and pulled out a copy of The Hangover, she smirked and opened the box. Inside was a note and a small wrapped gift. Running upstairs to her room and closing the door, she read the letter.

_Aria, the enclosed is yours, it always will be, I gave it to you. One thing you can promise me is that if you choose to sell it, you can only use the funds to do something really crazy. I will make the same promise with mine. Forever your partner in crazy, Ezra xoxo. _

Aria was shaking as she carefully unwrapped the little package. It contained her wedding ring, which was now on the end of a long silver chain, along with a silver A. Tears started to well up in her eyes. She wanted to rush downstairs and hug Ezra, instead she put the chain on with the intention she was never going to take it off. Ezra had purposely bought a long chain knowing she could never wear it outside her clothing. He had bought the "A" in case anyone asked what was on the end of the chain and she could show that instead.

Ella called Aria from downstairs for dinner. Aria wiped her eyes and made her way down the stairs.

Taking the seat next to Ezra, she looked around before reaching under the table and squeezing his hand. Ezra tensed before squeezing back and risking a look at her. He smiled when he saw the thin chain, then cleared his throat and moved his hand from Aria's as he caught himself looking down to her chest to where it disappeared from sight.

Aria silently chuckled as Ezra went red.

The dinner appeared to go smoothly. Ezra was used to small talk after having to attend many of his family's fundraisers and mixers in his teens. He actually enjoyed Ella's company, she had much the same humour as him. Byron intimidated him, although he put that down to the fact that he had this irrational belief that he was just going to blurt out that he had seen his daughter naked any time he had to speak.

"Are you married Ezra?" Byron asked. They had moved to the lounge for coffee after dinner.

"Uh..no, no not yet." Ezra stammered out, glancing at Aria.

"Not yet? So you have a girlfriend then?" Ella questioned.

"Uhh.. it's a bit complicated right now…you know with me being here.. I really should get going. Classes tomorrow and all that." Ezra felt like he was sweating from every pore again and needed to escape.

"Oh, yes sure. It was great having you here. Aria can you get Ezra's jacket for him." Ella asked.

Aria wandered off to get Ezra's jacket, waiting by the front door with it to hand it to him.

As he passed her on his way out the door, Aria leaned closer, "check your pocket later." He smiled at her and glanced at the necklace.

Once in his car, he felt inside his pocket. There was a small piece of paper inside.

_Thank you for being both the calm and the crazy in my life. Aria xoxo. _

Ezra smiled, before leaning his head on the steering wheel. He was falling for her. This was not the plan.


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you again for the lovely reviews. I am glad people are enjoying the story. I need some "old school" Ezria in my life as Season 3 is not making me a happy bunny. Does anyone else spend every episode screaming paternity test at the screen? It would just satisfy me a little bit if Ezra demanded one, whilst he might be accepting his new life, I am not... but anyway... I digress.. **

**Hopefully this chapter gives you the warm and fuzzies (as per usual I had no particular place to split the chapter, but fear not more is written past this point)... **

Friday had come around again. Ezra sat at his desk waiting for the class to arrive. Noel Kahn and a group of guys entered the room first. They were talking loudly about the party he was throwing that evening, paying little attention to the fact that Ezra was sat there.

"So boys, how about a little wager on who gets the furthest with Aria Montgomery tonight?" Noel smirked to his friends. "We all know I'll win, she'll melt over me, but I'll accept some competition."

The boys laughed along with Noel and gave him high fives.

"Kahn GET OUT NOW." Ezra yelled.

Aria and the other girls had just entered the classroom as Ezra started to yell, oblivious to what had been said.

"I mean it, GET OUT. You talk about Aria or any other girl like that again and I will make sure you _never_ get to see the end of your high school education. Do I make myself clear?"

Noel walked close to Ezra. "Yeah, yeah I'm going _Mr. Fitz, _maybe it's _you_ that needs to get laid, chill out a little".

"Noel, get out of here." Aria warned, seeing that Ezra was clenching his fists as if he was about to punch Noel.

"I'll see you tonight Aria." Noel said with a wink before exiting the classroom.

Aria turned to Ezra who was seething. He scared her when he looked this angry. She had no idea what Noel had said to make him this way.

"Don't let him get to you." Aria said quietly to Ezra, hoping she might be able to calm him down.

"Right everyone in your seats and no one talks." Ezra ordered the class. He knew Aria was trying to help him but he couldn't let the class see that she could change his mood. He felt guilty, but at the same time he was angry with himself too for reacting the way he did.

As soon as the class was over Ezra grabbed his stuff and left, leaving Aria with no opportunity to talk to him.

"Do you think he's ok?" Emily asked the girls.

"I don't know, whatever Noel said really wound him up." Aria replied, unsure what would have annoyed Ezra so much.

"Fitzy looked like he was going to punch Noel, he's pretty hot when he's angry.." Hannah said.

Spencer glared at her.

"What? He is.." Hannah pleaded.

"Han, do I talk about your boyfriends like this?" Aria snapped.

"I didn't realise he was your _boyfriend_**." **Hannah replied with a smirk.

"He's..he's not, you know what I meant." Aria replied agitated.

"Are you still coming to the party?" Hannah asked.

"No way, not after Noel was such a jerk. I can't believe you are still going. I'm heading home, I'll chat to you tomorrow." Aria replied before walking away.

Ezra had stopped at the bottle shop on the way home, purchasing a bottle of scotch. He felt he needed it. He couldn't believe he had nearly lost it at a student. He prided himself on being professional, he laughed to himself at that thought given his situation with Aria. Tonight though, he intended to drink away his problems.

Ezra was on his 4th scotch when he heard a knock at his door. Dragging himself from the couch he went to answer it. He was shocked to see Aria stood on the other side.

"Hi, umm I wanted to know you were ok?"

"What are you doing here Aria?" Ezra sighed returning to the couch, leaving her to enter the apartment and close the door.

"Hey, why are you upset with me? What happened today Ezra?"

"I don't know Aria, it's just… you are my wife, _my_ _wife, _and I have to sit by and listen to no hopers like Noel Kahn drool over you and talk about you and not react. I can't talk to you, I can't get to know you, I can't be with you and it's a lot harder than I thought it would be. I didn't expect to care so much." Ezra replied not making eye contact, both hands gripping the glass in front of him.

"Woah, back up. For starters, there's still no reason to be mad at me."

Ezra sighed, lifting his head to look at her. "I know, I'm sorry."

"That's better." Aria stated, removing her shoes and going to kneel in front of Ezra, taking the glass out of his hands and placing it on the coffee table.

"Ok, let's start again. Hi." Aria smiled.

Ezra cracked, lifting his eyes to hers and smiling. "Hi, it's good to see you, crazy but good.."

"Partners in crazy right?" Aria asked, rubbing her hands on his knees. Aria had no idea how to address the fact that he had referred to her as "_his wife_" avoiding was the only way she knew how to handle it right now.

"Partners in crazy." Ezra smiled. His eyes lowered to look at the necklace chain around her neck.

Ezra reached out to touch the chain. Aria held her breath as his fingers lightly skimmed her chest, pulling the chain up from underneath her dress. He held the ring tightly in his palm, before looking up to face Aria.

The gap between them closed as they both went in for a heated kiss. Aria could taste bitter alcohol as she pressed herself closer to Ezra, tangling her fingers in his hair. Ezra vented his frustrations through the kiss.

Both pulled back in need of air. Ezra's hands caressing Aria's flushed cheeks.

"Sorry.. I didn't mean to be so rough." Ezra leant forward and lightly kissed her forehead.

Just as Aria went to reply, there was knock at the door.

"I don't suppose that made you hungry?" Ezra smiled at Aria.

"Starving." Aria replied as Ezra got up to answer the door to the delivery guy and she took a seat on the couch.

They laughed and chatted their way through the Thai take-out Ezra had ordered for himself earlier. They sat at either end of the couch their legs entwined in the middle.

"Shouldn't you be at that party?" Ezra asked.

"I don't buy into the whole high school theory that you go to parties held by people you can't stand. I'm sure the others went."

"I did the same at high school, I couldn't do fake friendships. So…where do your parents think you are?"

"At the party…then staying at Hannah's."

"Right." Ezra nodded and exhaled, uneasy with the potential outcome that might come of the night yet he found himself asking if she wanted to watch a movie.

"Sure, I'd love to" Aria replied happily, trying to break the tension. Knowing Ezra was battling with himself over her.

Ezra started the movie before returning to the couch, changing to lie behind Aria so that he could wrap his arms around her, their fingers entwined. Kissing the top of her head as he settled in.

"I'm glad you're here." Ezra said softly about half way into the movie. He felt completely at ease with Aria, he had never had this with his ex girlfriends. They were more controlling types who seemed to never truly relax, maybe it was a New York thing.

Aria turned her head to face him. "I don't want to be anywhere else…but here..with you."

The kiss that followed was soft until Aria turned her body around so that she was lying on top of Ezra, causing him to groan in frustration as she increased the intensity of the kiss.

"Stay with me?" Ezra asked quietly between the light kisses he was placing on Aria's neck, one hand was buried in her hair, the other had edged her dress up a little to allow him to stroke her thigh. Ezra couldn't blame the alcohol anymore, that had long since worn off, he just couldn't help himself around her.

Aria smiled and nodded, letting out a gasp as Ezra gripped her thighs as he sat up and lifted her off the couch towards his bed, his lips never leaving her neck as he did so.


	8. Chapter 8

**Morning.. Just a short-ish chapter to give me some more time to be well ahead. I got distracted at the beach yesterday watching the big surf that I didn't get any writing done.. ooops. **

**Thank you for sticking with my story :0)**

Ezra woke with a smile on his face. His arms were still wrapped around Aria, she was curled into his side, her head resting on his chest. He reached down to again play with her necklace. He felt completely confused about their situation and how he was meant to be reacting. His thought process was broken by a chuckle from Aria.

"Ezra that tickles." Aria smiled without opening her eyes.

"Sorry I didn't mean to wake you. I was just thinking."

"Daylight brings us back to reality right?"

Ezra let out a sigh and hugged Aria closer, kissing her head.

"Something like that" he replied.

They lay in silence trying to ignore the world outside of the apartment.

"I guess we can cross inability to consummate the marriage off our list of annulment grounds." Ezra said, attempting to sound light hearted.

Aria pushed herself up to face Ezra. "That was never going to be a plausible ground to use." Lowering her lips to his, reality needed to wait a while longer.

Ezra was in the shower, while Aria hunted for her phone, she had already showered before him. She had 5 missed calls from Hannah. It was now nearly 11 o'clock as Aria put the kettle on to make them both coffee.

Dialling Hannah's number, Aria took a deep breath, unsure of why she would have called five times.

"Aria, where are you?" Hannah asked.

"I'm… I'm at home, why?" Aria replied nervously.

"Oh..right, no reason.. I just need to talk to you about last night.. I have so much to tell you about this guy Caleb I met. Can you meet me at The Grille?"

Ezra walked out of the shower wrapped in a towel, making Aria lose her train of thought.

"Aria? Are you there?" Hannah questioned.

"Umm yeah, sorry.. sure I can meet you. Half an hour ok?"

"Great I'll see you there." Hannah replied chirpily.

Aria watched Ezra pull on his shorts. Smiling as he walked shirtless towards her.

"I made you coffee." Aria said offering him the mug.

"Hmm thanks." Ezra said as he wrapped his arms around Aria lifting her on to the kitchen worktop, lightly kissing and sucking on her neck.

Aria groaned, "Ezra don't start something we can't finish, I have to go and meet Hannah."

Ezra pulled back and attempted to give Aria puppy dog eyes.

"That's cute, but it's not working this time mister. Reality calls." Aria gave Ezra a quick kiss before jumping off the kitchen counter. "What do you have planned today?"

"Me, nothing really, some marking. I'll head into town later. You my dear, are the only person I know here."

"I know, I'm sorry, I wish I could take you with me, just walk down the street with you, drink store bought coffee.." Aria joked as she took a mouthful of her coffee and scrunched her face up.

"Maybe one day.." Ezra replied with a weak smile.

"Maybe." Aria smiled, kissing him quickly before going to find her shoes and bag.

Ezra walked Aria to the door. "Thanks for coming to see me last night…and for staying.. it was…" Ezra didn't know what to say.

Aria smiled and leaned up to him. "I agree.. it was…" Kissing him softly.

Ezra once again grinned at the sight of Aria walking away from his apartment, much like he had done in Vegas. He had gotten lucky with that girl, well, when he took reality out of the occasion, this made him groan in frustration.

Aria arrived at The Grille to see Hannah already sat in a booth.

"Hey Han, sorry I'm late."

"You must have been rushing.." Hannah said with a smile on her face.

"Umm yeah, I was. I overslept." Aria replied, confused at what Hannah meant.

"So rushed you didn't have time to put make up on." Hannah continued.

"Jees Han.. it's the weekend..and anyway why the judgement on the lack of make up?" Aria replied getting defensive.

"Oh nothing..nothing.. don't worry" Hannah smirked back. "You look fine. It suits you. Anyway, you missed out on a good party last night, Noel and the football guys were complete losers but…. I did get myself a date this week with a new guy in town called Caleb."

Aria sat listening to Hannah relay in every detail her evening with Caleb. In many ways she actually liked that she was keeping the fact that she had seen Ezra again to herself, it made her feel closer to him.

As Hannah hugged Aria before walking in the opposite direction, she stopped.

"Oh Aria, just one thing.. you might want to avoid your parents until you've changed." Hannah gave a wave and walked off.

Aria stood there confused, she looked down at herself and saw nothing wrong. Climbing into the driver's seat, Aria was still puzzled by Hannah's advice. Pulling down the visor and looking in the mirror, Aria let out a gasp and cursed.. She had two large love bites on her neck.

Pulling out her phone she dialled Ezra.

"Did you miss me already?" Ezra asked as soon as he answered.

"You are hard to miss right now, I have a giant reminder of you on my neck." Aria stated trying to sound mad at him but struggling, she had enjoyed him putting them there whenever he had done it, touching her reddened skin as if she could wipe them off.

"God Aria, I'm sorry I just didn't think.. what did Hannah say? Does she know how you got them?.. I mean she knows how you got them _literally_, I meant who gave them to you?" Ezra started to sound worried as he rambled.

"It was strange, she only mentioned it as she went to leave, I have to give her credit for her restraint. That's impressive for her. Hang on she's sent me a text."

_So where did you leave your mark on Fitzy? ;0)_

"What did she say?" Ezra asked as he could hear Aria groan.

"She knows it's you, she said.. actually, you know what.. you don't need to know what she said. The point is she knows, we need to be more careful."

"I can imagine what she said, this is Hannah, she usually vocalises _all_ her thoughts. I'm sorry Aria, I really am. Are you going to be ok at home?"

"Yeah, I just need to change out of this dress, it's ok I can hide my neck.. it felt good at the time though.." Aria added with a smile. "I should get going before my parents really are waiting on the doorstep for me. I'll talk to you later though."

"Ok, talk to you later, my partner in crazy."

Aria laughed and shook her head. "Bye trouble."

Aria quietly slipped in the front door, edging her way to the stairs to escape to her room.

"Oh hi honey, how was last night? Did you have fun?" Ella said coming out of the kitchen.

Aria was a rabbit in the headlights, there was no hiding now.

"Um yeah it was good, Hannah and I just went and had coffee. I need to go change though." Aria said quickly, trying to start up the stairs.

"Yes, I could see why you would want to change. Please just tell me you were in control of yourself and you were careful?" Ella said trying to broach the delicate subject with Aria.

"Mom, we don't have to do this, it's embarrassing. I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Aria said trying to escape the conversation.

"I know Aria, I trust you, but just remember people can do some pretty stupid and crazy things when they are drinking and not thinking. I just don't want you to make a mistake and have any regrets ok?"

"I know, thanks."

"So.. do I get to meet this guy any time soon?" Ella asked with a smile.

"No. No, that won't be happening, it's nothing. I'm going to go change ok." Aria said scurrying up the stairs before texting Ezra.

_You mister made me just endure the embarrassment of my mother prying into my love life. I need to think of a suitable punishment. _

Ezra smiled at Aria's text.

_Your "love life" hey? Tell me more. I think my punishment should be delivered in an enjoyable way though seeing as you had the enjoyment of me attached to your neck while I committed my crime. It's only fair. xoxo_

Aria laughed out loud.

_You are unbelievable. I am trying to be mad at you here. Stop making me smile. xoxo_


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello.. apologies for the delay. I went to see Bruce Springsteen last night and I feel exhausted after it. If you haven't seen him live - do so.. My advice for the day...**

**Thank you again for the lovely words you write in your reviews. You make me smile and laugh with the comments.**

**So as mentioned I know nothing about annulments and divorces so anything I write is from good old Google. I need to hurry up and get ahead again, nearly up to posting everything I have written so far.. I never even imagined it would be this long to be honest!**

Aria hurried down the empty halls early on Monday morning clutching a coffee and a brown paper bag. Glancing through the window of Ezra's classroom and smiling as she saw him sat at his desk sipping a coffee and reading. Checking behind her to ensure she wasn't seen, she slipped in the room, closing the door behind her.

"Hey." Ezra said smiling, standing to meet her.

"I come bearing pastries." Aria grinned, holding up the brown bag.

"I already marked your paper Aria, it's too late to bribe me." Ezra joked.

"Oh well, maybe I'll sit here and make you watch me eat both of them then." Aria responded.

Ezra laughed before Aria offered him the pastry bag to pull one out.

"How's your neck?" Ezra asked sheepishly.

"Getting better, I'd show you but that might not be too wise." Aria laughed. "But, thanks for asking."

"Nice t-shirt by the way." Ezra smirked as he wiped his hands on his pants, having finished his pastry, leaning back against the desk.

"Oh do you like it? Some guy gave it to me.. I forget his name..Still smells of him actually" Aria smiled before biting her lip, she had worn Ezra's t-shirt from Vegas over a mini skirt., she was unsure how he would react to her wearing it to school.

Ezra reached out and touched the t-shirt exactly where he knew the ring hung beneath it. Aria held her breath as she felt the heat of Ezra's hand through the t-shirt. He couldn't understand why he felt the need to touch the ring whenever he saw Aria.

"Do you want to come over tonight?" Ezra asked without making eye contact with Aria, a slight frown on his face the sign of his internal conflict. "We should talk about what we need to do about us.. this.. I mean we should talk."

"Sure, I'll be there." Aria replied calmly, knowing Ezra was trying to balance his emotions.

The sound of voices in the hallway caused Ezra to pull his hand away from Aria and to stand up straight.

"Come over whenever you want, I'll order us dinner."

"Great thanks, I should go.. you know before.." Aria said as her voice tailed off. She knew there was no point saying why they couldn't be seen together.

"Yeah.. I know, thanks for the pastry though." Ezra said finally looking up to Aria's face again. Smiling at her before she left him alone. Leaning back against his desk, trying to bring his heartbeat back to a normal pace.

As Aria wandered the halls to find the other girls, her phone beeped. Ezra had sent her a text.

_I like my t-shirt on you. xoxo. _

Aria grinned before quickly hiding the phone in her bag as the other girls approached.

Ezra sat picking at his salad in the staff room during lunch reading through his notes for the day.

"Mind if I join you?" Ella asked, drawing Ezra's eyes away from his papers.

"Sure, sure.. sorry let me move my stuff." Ezra replied pulling his notes together into a neat pile. "Thanks again for dinner last week, I really appreciate it."

"Oh, no problem, we should do it again soon, we loved having you there." Ella replied honestly. "I know Aria would be happy to hear more about New York, she's desperate to go there to study. It's so strange to think that in a few months she'll be leaving home."

"She's a bright, intelligent girl, I am sure she'll be fine." Ezra appeased.

"I know, I just worry, like every mother. She's not my little girl with pink streaks in her hair anymore"

Ezra smiled at the thought of Aria with pink streaks, he thought he could bring up her history of being a little crazy with her later.

"On Saturday she comes home after a party with love bites on her neck, which just brings on a whole new realm of worries as a parent. You sit there wondering whether these guys are good enough for her and are treating her right. You start thinking no guy will ever be good enough for your baby. It's exhausting.. don't ever have children Ezra!" Ella laughed.

Ezra had begun choking when Ella started talking about the marks on Aria's neck that he had made.

"Oh, are you ok?" Ella asked concerned after she had finished her over-share.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just something in my throat. I'm fine, all good." Ezra stammered. Drinking water to stop himself from talking.

He was saved by the end of lunch bell.

"Well back to the front line.. sorry for off-loading my problems on you. You are a good listener Ezra." Ella said before leaving Ezra sitting there unable to move.

He wished he had been able to choose what he listened to. Having a discussion with your wife's.. no girlfriend's.. no.. whatever Aria was to him, her mother about love bites he made and no one ever being good enough for Aria was a torture he didn't enjoy. He was fairly sure Aria's parents would castrate him if they found out what he had done. In his mind he couldn't solidly convince himself he wasn't going to let it happen again though. He groaned before standing up and reluctantly heading off to his next class.

Upon arriving home, Ezra changed into jeans and a t-shirt, he sat thinking about how he was meant to carry out his promise to Aria that he would sort out the annulment or divorce. He hadn't had the time or if he was honest the 100% desire to look into it, there was another part of him that just thought ignoring it would make it go away, but he knew it was not really the kind of problem that went away. He realised that Aria had seemed a lot more relaxed about it too, if anything he was the one battling it out more in his mind, or she was better at covering her thoughts up.. she had lied, or withheld the truth when they had met, he considered, she was lying tonight he thought, she'd have to be to cover where she was. She was a pretty good liar, but smiled at the thought of her.

Aria knocked lightly on the door of apartment 3b, she wasn't sure if Ezra was going to be flirty or serious with her. She smiled as Ezra opened the door, looking at how the t-shirt clung tightly to his biceps.

"Hey, come in." Ezra smiled, moving aside to let Aria pass him. Closing the door before wrapping his arms around her for a hug. "You smell amazing." He said causing Aria to laugh and thank him.

Aria ran her hands up and down Ezra's back. "This feels good, I've wanted to do this all day." Pulling back slightly to smile at him.

Ezra lowered his head to kiss her, within seconds things became heated, hands wandered as he backed Aria against the wall. Aria snaked one hand under his t-shirt and the other into his back pocket to hold him against her, causing Ezra to groan as she lifted one of her legs to wrap it around his waist. Both knowing no talking was going to get done right now given their determination to rid each other of layers of clothing.

"Ezra.. the bed.." Aria managed to say, struggling to form a sentence.

Ezra responded by lifting her as if she weightless across the room. He had justified to himself that if he got this out of his system now at the start of the evening, then maybe he could think straight to talk. He was grasping at any logic to silence the doubt in his mind about his actions and how easily things had got heated. It was like he had no control.

Ezra threw Aria one of his t-shirts with a smile. "Here, you can put this on for now if you want. I'll call for dinner, pizza ok with you?"

Aria nodded before kneeling on the bed and lifting the shirt over her head.

Ezra groaned as he watched Aria wander over to the couch, the sight of another of his t-shirts on her petite body killing him.

Sat on the couch after eating, Ezra knew he had to start the conversation of what they needed to do.

"So I looked at the lawyers in town, but I presume that the "Hastings" is a relation of Spencer's?"

"Her mother. So that's definitely out of the question."

Ezra grabbed his laptop from the table and loaded up the internet. Typing annulments into the search engine.

"Ok, we need to decide on annulment or divorce. I have no idea whether we can even apply for annulment, looking at the grounds here I am not sure what we can file under."

Aria shuffled next to Ezra to look at the screen. "Within 60 days we can go for under the influence of alcohol I guess.. I have no idea how we prove that. Although trying to say we didn't understand the nature of a marriage contract is going to be pretty hard, we are not that stupid…ok we were stupid for a small window of time.. Or you could claim fraud on my part, saying you didn't know my age and that you ended up being my teacher."

Ezra sighed, "I'm not pinning this on you Aria for fraud, this was both our doing."

Aria reached across and entwined her fingers with Ezra's.

"It's not about blame Ezra, I know we are both in this together but this might be one option." Aria tried to reason with him.

"Another option is you agree to me asking Hardy for help. It's not his area of expertise, he's more mergers and corporate stuff, but he might know someone who can help?"

Aria took a deep breath, unsure how she felt about someone else knowing what they had done, but knowing it might be inevitable.

"I don't want to tell anyone either Aria given the circumstances, but I think we need someone else's help, someone not from round here, someone who will know how to fix this without damaging your future. I don't want you to not be able to have the wedding of your dreams because of this in the future."

Aria knew he had her best interests at heart, he was kind of person who put everyone before himself.

"Ok, you can tell him. We need the help. I trust you to do the right thing and I believe you when you promise you'll fix this."

Ezra turned to look at Aria, his hand caressing her cheek as he gave her a light kiss. "You are amazing, do you know that?"

Aria smiled, "why do you say that?"

"Because you are so calm about all this, it feels like I am the one falling apart more these days."

"Well so far, being your wife has actually been pretty easy and there are benefits.. like being able to do this.." Aria leant in to kiss him. Ezra responded whilst moving the laptop out of the way.

"hmmm.. this is a good benefit." Ezra said between kisses.

"Anyway, who said I am not waiting to see just what assets you have hidden away in New York that I might want half of. A brownstone, an array of rare art, fancy cars.. I could be missing out on all that." Aria joked.

"Ok truthfully, yes I own an apartment in a brownstone.. the art and the cars, they're more my grandparent's thing."

Aria was shocked, "are you messing with me right now?"

Ezra shook his head. "No. I have a three bedroom apartment near Columbia Uni, my family live on the Upper East Side. I stay West. I'm the black sheep. My grandparents hold benefits and do the charity function thing, which is great of them but it's not the life for me. I chose teaching to give back another way I guess"

"And, they don't like that?" Aria questioned.

"They don't get it, me teaching and writing. I know I am lucky to be able to afford to live my dreams but I never wanted their lifestyles. My only concession to it is buying the property instead of renting I guess."

"So I did hit the jackpot then" Aria said playfully as she nudged him with her shoulder.

"No, I think I did." Ezra replied, the words out of his mouth before he had chance to think what he was saying. The silence after his words sat heavy as they both considered what he meant.

Aria moved first, swinging her leg over his lap to straddle him, leaning back on his legs that were bent resting on the coffee table. Ezra ran his hands up her sides, the t-shirt scrunching up as he did so exposing her underwear, stomach and Aria's ring on its chain. His hands lightly stroked her skin. Everything felt slower, more meaningful than the urgency of when she had arrived.


	10. Chapter 10

**I am so so sorry for the delay, this week slipped away from me a bit and I think when I realised the number of reviews I had it spooked me a bit and I lost my confidence. **

**I am not overly happy with this chapter, so fingers crossed you think it is still up with the rest of the story - I struggled with it being so conversational, but it felt necessary.**

**I have no idea what career Hardy is supposed to have in the show - so I decided he was as per Patrick's character in Suits and in a legal profession, obvious choice. **

**Thank you for reviewing and reading... I know this is not a big pick me up that people wanted after the finale - believe me I want one myself, but I have no intention of making Ezra the unconfirmed father to any child in this story! Please tell me Ian Harding is in series 4 or I might cry even more embarrassingly than I did during the finale. **

Ezra poured himself a glass of scotch before dialling Hardy's number.

"Hey man, how's it going?" Hardy asked upon answering.

"Hey, it's going ok. It's not New York, but it's a good change for me, I needed it. What's new with you?"

"Oh you know me. All work, then I play.. New York loves me and I love it. I bumped into Jackie the other day, she was asking about you."

"I want nothing to do with her and I hope you told her that. I am well and truly over her."

"You are well rid of her anyway.. anyone else on the scene? You are still coming back for my brother's wedding right? Who is your plus one?" Hardy asked.

"Right, I had forgotten about that.. yeah yeah, I'm coming back for it, it's during the break here. As for the plus one.. not so sure I'll have one but I'll let him know. Listen, I called because I need you to help me with something."

"Sure man, what do you need?"

"Right.. how do I say this?.. Sorry this is kinda big.. You know what, do you want to come down here this weekend? What I need help with probably is going to require you to lecture me and I might as well have you paying for the beers while you do it."

"Sounds interesting, and me lecturing you, wow.. what could you have done to warrant that. It's usually the other way round…but you have baited my interest so I will see you on Friday." Hardy said, before they both hung up the call.

Ezra spotted Aria talking to her friends by their lockers during recess.

Unable to bring himself to walk over to them, he got out his phone to text Aria as he disappeared into his classroom.

_Can you make an excuse to come see me? xoxo_

Aria felt her phone vibrate and smiled as she saw Ezra's name on screen. Biting her lip as she read his message.

"Aria's got an admirer, who's the text from, you're grinning?" Emily teased.

"It's nothing, just my mum" Aria replied.

"Nice try, but your mother is stood over there talking to Mrs Welch and no one smiles like that at texts from their mother." Spencer added.

Before Aria could think to respond, Hannah had grabbed her phone to look at the screen. Hannah looked up to make eye contact with Aria, realising she might be the only one who knew Aria had being seeing Ezra.

"Who's Holden? Aria, tell us more" Hannah improvised, remembering the name of a family friend's son, handing the phone back.

Aria let out a nervous laugh, "Oh we were just joking around about something, we might meet up. It's nothing."

"Come on girls, let's hit the bathrooms before class. Aria, are you coming?" Hannah asked giving Aria the opportunity to see Ezra.

"Uh no, I think I will wait here and talk to my mum a minute when's she's done. I'll come find you after." Aria replied, smiling at Hannah, hoping she knew she was grateful.

Slipping into Ezra's classroom, she shut the door behind her. Ezra smiled as she entered, lifting himself to sit on the desk.

"Hey, how's your day going?" Ezra asked.

"Not too bad, the work is piling up but I am feeling strangely calm about it all."

"You'll do fine, the end is in sight now. I am here if you need my help, please remember that." Ezra offered.

"Thanks, I might take you up on that."

A few moments of comfortable silence passed as they studied each other's faces.

"I talked to Hardy last night." Ezra started "I haven't told him anything yet, I figured I should see him face to face. So, he's coming down Friday afternoon."

"Do you think he is going to agree to help?"

"I know he will, however stupid he thinks I am, we are best friends. I might just get a bit of a lecture out of it. Which.. will be a change as it is always me lecturing him."

Aria chuckled.

"I hope he is not going to be too hard on you. Will he hate me and think I am to blame?" Aria worried, suddenly realising that Hardy might not think to highly of her once he knew.

"He won't blame you Aria, I'd never let him. He'll blame me, he teased me after you left the room that day anyway, saying I was a 'lovesick teenager' or something like that."

"Oh the irony." Aria responded causing them both to laugh.

"In fact when I tried to see if he knew where we had been that night he jokingly asked if you had made me marry you, so actually… maybe he will blame you."

Aria gave Ezra a playful shove. Ezra reached over and entwined his fingers in hers, his other hand lifted her necklace out from under her dress, pulling her a bit closer.

"Aria, we are both in this equally ok? You can be there when I tell him if you want? I promise that he will just get some enjoyment from being able to hold this over me, he is the male version of Hannah. Is she single? Maybe we should set them up? Actually that would be a nightmare for everyone else, too much vocalising of inappropriate thoughts."

Aria smiled and squeezed Ezra's hand. "I think you should tell him and then maybe I can come and meet you both. He'll want some time with you first."

"Ok, I'll let you know where we are and if you can get away, I _want_ you to be there."

"I want to be there too. I want to meet your friend, you've met my friends, it's only fair."

Ezra laughed, his fingers playing with Aria's necklace.

A knock on the door made Ezra drop the necklace and remove his hand from Aria's.

Mrs Welch and Ella entered the room.

"Oh sorry to disturb you, we didn't realise you were in here Aria." Mrs Welch apologised.

"No, that's fine, we're done, thanks for your help with my paper." Aria gave Ezra a smile before hurrying out of the room avoiding looking at her mother. She was sure she looked guilty. Ella frowned, wondering why Aria had scurried away but put it to the back of her mind.

Ezra spent most of his Friday lessons distracted. He was trying to figure out the best way to tell Hardy and how he was going to introduce him to Aria. He was getting nervous, he really wanted Hardy to like her. It was a mass of contradictions.

As the bell sounded and he dismissed the class, Aria lingered as others made their desperate escapes.

"So what time does Hardy get here?" Aria asked.

"He should be at my apartment fairly soon, he took a half day, he's here until Sunday morning."

"Ok, well I will wait to hear from you. Where are you thinking of going tonight?"

"I am not too sure, there's that little bar over the other side of town.. oh I hadn't thought about the fact that we'll be at a bar, how are you going to meet us?"

"Seriously? You are asking me about how I can get into a bar?" Aria laughed.

"Right, good point. I suspect I am supposed to confiscate that thing and not encourage it aren't I? But then.. I suppose I am meant to be doing a lot of things right now, or not doing more to the point.." Ezra said visibly beating himself up inside.

"Hey, don't think like that, what's brought this on?" Aria questioned. "We are going to have a nice evening with your best friend. Well, as good a night as you can have after you drop our bombshell. I don't even have to drink if it makes you feel better about it?" Aria reasoned with Ezra.

"I just hate all the lies we are telling that's all."

"And we are coming clean about one lie, a big lie this evening, we are trying to figure this out, let's just take it one step at a time together."

Ezra smiled at her, he really wanted to kiss her for being there for him as he hoped he was there for her.

"I'll see you later then, I'll call you."

Aria brushed her hand across his as she turned to leave. Ezra's eyes following her across the room, releasing a frustrated groan as she disappeared from sight.

Ezra opened the apartment door to find Hardy on the other side, they did the man hug – back slap thing before Ezra moved aside to let him in.

"Downsizing much here dude?" Hardy joked as he scanned Ezra's apartment.

"You're funny, I don't need more than this, its only temporary. I like it."

"So you haven't called me down here to help save you from these four small walls then. Get you out of a lease or something? This place is smaller than our dorm room."

Ezra rolled his eyes. "Some good times were had in that dorm room, don't knock it."

"I had many a good time in there." Hardy smirked.

"I know I heard most of them." Ezra retorted.

"We need beer, does this town have a bar?" Hardy asked rubbing his hands.

"It's pretty small, don't get your hopes up. College bars are about as exciting as it gets."

"College bars can be exciting, all those girls eager to learn."

"You are unbelievable." Ezra said shaking his head.

"Ah I see, you are down here all alone without your wingman, yours truly, you are too scared to go in there on your own. Well fear not my friend, tonight I will introduce you to the locals. Set you up for the duration of your time here." Hardy slapped Ezra on the back before grabbing his jumper and wallet.

"It's not like that. I don't need a wingman."

"Ah so it's like that.. you've met someone?"

"Yes.. no.. it's not like that either. Let's go and I'll tell you when we get there."

The boys caught a cab to the bar. Ezra pulled his phone out and quickly texted Aria.

_Hey, we're just getting in a cab now to go to Snookers. Give me an hour or so and I'll call you to let you know when to come. xoxo_

Aria read the text as she sat on her bed. She had told the girls she was staying home as she did not feel well, but she was telling her parents that she was heading over to Hannah's and they were going for a late dinner as she need to cover for her being more dressed up than their normal movie night sweatpants attire.

_Good luck, I'm thinking of you. We're in this together – Partners in Crazy. See you soon xoxo_

Aria jumped off the bed and went to shower, she wanted to make a good impression to Hardy and it was a chance to be out in public with Ezra. It was risky, but the bar was over the other side of town and had booths, making it easier to be discreet.

Ezra and Hardy entered the busy bar. Weaving their way through the crowd.

"Let's look for a booth, it'll be easier to talk." Ezra said, guiding Hardy through the building.

Finding their spot, Ezra went to the bar to get their drinks.

"Cheers!" Hardy said as he clinked his glass to Ezra's.

Ezra took a long drag of his beer. He needed it to calm his nerves. He and Hardy spent a while exchanging updates on their jobs and friends, refilling their glasses as soon as they were finished.

"So, what did you need help with, seeing as you disappoint me by saying it's not to pick up girls? Hit me with it. I'm ready." Hardy asked as he sipped his third beer.

"Right.. ok. Where to start.. So you remember in Las Vegas I met that girl Aria?" Ezra said, staring into his glass and not looking at Hardy.

"Yeah, I remember her, petite, really hot, you fawned over her all night like a puppy. What about her?"

"Well, umm she actually lives in Rosewood."

"No way, dude you lucked out. So that's why you aren't checking out the local female students, you're tapping Aria. Nice."

Ezra cringed at the reference to female students and the word tapping.

"Tapping, really?" Ezra looked up at Hardy in disbelief. Hardy merely smiled and lifted his glass to take a sip.

"Right, so Aria lives here and well.." Ezra was struggling, did he tell him the fact that she is his student first or that they are married first?

"For an English teacher, you seem to be struggling to form a sentence Ezra, what kind of school are you teaching in?" Hardy laughed.

"The school is the issue, Aria is a student at my school. She's in my classes." Ezra said looking back at his beer before taking a big swig.

"What? How? I'm sorry, how old is she Ezra?" Hardy stammered, confused at what he had just been told.

"She's 18, she graduates in a few months." Ezra said quietly.

Hardy shook his head and let out a chuckle. "Oh man, you are so screwed…Wait are sleeping with her?"

"Yes.. no.. it's more complicated than that."

"Ezra it's pretty simple, have you slept with her since you moved here?" Hardy asked bluntly, using his legal mind to argue a point.

"Yes..but as I said it's bigger than that."

"How is it any bigger? Have you got her pregnant? Am I about to have to bail you out of jail once a school board finds out?"

"No, she's not pregnant Hardy. I'm not that stupid." Ezra countered.

"Not that stupid? Ezra, this sounds pretty damn stupid to me. Please tell me this is not still happening? Are you going to let it happen again?"

"Yes.. no.. I mean I don't know what will happen." Ezra was struggling to remain focussed.

"Dude, you cannot keep this up. This is going to end badly and it will end with me bailing you out of jail. She's not worth risking it all over." Hardy said sternly.

"Right.. but there's something else. The thing I need your help with."

"There's more? I thought you wanting help was needing me to tell you that you're an idiot face to face! I have successfully done that."

"I married her.. we're married.." Ezra blurted out.

Hardy's beer remained halfway to his open mouth as he merely stared at Ezra. The silence lingered for an uneasy amount of time. Ezra was unsure of whether to continue with an explanation or let it stand as it was.

Hardy suddenly started laughing, making Ezra nervous.

"Oh man, that's gold, you married her in Vegas didn't you?" Hardy managed to say while gripping his sides laughing. "This is beyond all my expectations of you, I never thought you of all people would have done this."

"Thanks, glad to entertain." Ezra said remaining straight faced and slowly sipping his beer.

"You're serious? You married a girl you met that night?" Hardy questioned.

"Yep, seems I did." Ezra remained "I'm just going to let you have your fun with it for now."

"I'm sorry, it's just so unlike you. So I presume you need me for a divorce then?" Hardy said with a smirk.

"Well, Aria and I hoped you might know someone who could help."

"What is your mother going to say? She will never speak to you again if she finds out, you realise that?"

"She hardly speaks to me now, I am enough of an embarrassment being a teacher. I won't let her judge Aria though, this is my fault as much as hers."

"Do I get to meet the new but soon to be not Mrs Fitz?" Hardy asked.

"Well.. she was going to come and meet us here if it's ok with you." Ezra said quietly.

"Right, how is she intending to meet us in a bar at her age?" Hardy asked confused.

"Dude, I met her in a bar, how do you think she got in there?" Ezra said as if stating the obvious.

"Good point. Look you're my best friend, I will do whatever you ask me to do, including drawing up divorce papers, however, I do want to meet this girl though, she's changed you." Hardy said in earnest.

"There is something about her. I want you to like her Hardy. It means a lot to me."

"Get her down here and I'll give her the Spanish Inquisition then, see if she is good enough to divorce you!" Hardy joked.

Ezra shook his head and pulled out his phone to call Aria.

"Hey, how did it go?" Aria asked as soon as she answered, she had been sat on the edge of her bed nervously waiting for his call.

"It went as well as I expected, Hardy wants to meet you.. and well I want to see you too." Ezra added going red as he saw Hardy shake his head at him.

"I want to see you tonight too." Aria replied, blushing. "I'll drive my car towards yours and get a cab from there. I'll see you soon hun, keep an eye out for me."

Aria kicked herself for using the term 'hun'. It had slipped out before she realised it, the contradictions hit her that she was falling for a guy she was divorcing.

Ezra smiled to himself as Aria called him 'hun'. It felt right and he liked hearing it. He too felt the contradiction rear as he reminded himself about their need to divorce each other.

Hardy watched Ezra frown and battle with himself, shaking his head in amusement. He could get so much mileage out of this situation for years to come, and he couldn't wait.


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry for the delay, I forced myself on your behalf to sit on the beach this weekend and get this chapter written. It's a tough life. Questions on how long will this story be.. hmm I don't know it is already longer than I thought. I have a couple more 'scenarios' to cover i think but there is going to start being some bigger time jumps from now on to get to my ending.. I hope that's ok**.

**Thank you so much for reading. I hope your weekend has been as relaxing as mine has been - Sydney truly cranked out it's best this weekend, sun, clear warm water.. I am off to have a beer now in the sun. **

**Bye for now...**

Aria stood outside Snookers, after exiting the cab. She had left her car a few blocks from Ezra's near some restaurants in case it was seen. Taking a deep breath and telling herself the night was going to go fine, she confidently walked through the door.

Spotting Ezra sat in a booth, Aria weaved her way through the crowd. Ezra looked up as she got closer and his whole face changed, he grinned at the sight of her. Putting his beer down, Ezra stood up to greet her.

"Hey you made it. You look amazing." Ezra said taking in the sight of Aria in her skintight jeans. He reached out to brush a strand of hair behind her ear, before pulling her closer for a hug. "I'm glad you came."

Aria smiled up at him, biting her lip. Ezra's thumb caressed her cheek before he lowered his lips to hers. Losing themselves to each other and forgetting the bar around them.

The sound of someone clearing their throat broke them apart with a start. Hardy had returned from the restroom.

"It's nice to see you again Aria, or do I call you Mrs Fitz?" Hardy said with a smile.

"Hardy!" Ezra warned.

"I know sorry that was too easy, I couldn't resist." Hardy joked before offering his hand for Aria to shake.

"It's good to see you again too Hardy." Aria responded nervously, Ezra placed his hand lightly on her back to show he was there for her.

"So, can I get you a drink? My round." Hardy said, rubbing his hands together.

Aria looked at Ezra nervously, unsure of where he stood with her drinking.

"We're drinking beers, but you don't have to have the same as us. Just make it something expensive, Hardy gets paid far too much." Ezra joked whilst trying to convey to her that he was ok with her drinking.

"Right, I'll have the same as you guys it's fine. Thanks Hardy."

Hardy left to go to the bar, while Ezra offered Aria the inside seat in the booth. He figured she would be less visible sat there. Shuffling in next to her, he entwined his fingers in hers on her lap. The alcohol had made him lose a lot of his will power to not be publicly affectionate with Aria. He was happy to be out with her and he was back to being the lovesick teenager again the night he had met her.

"Are you sure you are ok with me drinking Ezra? I don't have to, if it makes you uneasy." Aria asked concerned.

"Well, we are being pretty crazy right now by being out in town together, so I am thinking it's not going to make much difference right now if you are drinking or not.. so we will just enjoy tonight as best we can and just be here, together."

Aria nodded and smiled at him as Hardy returned to the table.

"So Aria, I hear you graduate in a few months, what are your plans after that?" Hardy asked.

"Well, I'm hoping to go to New York, I've applied for Columbia and a few other places there, so I'm pretty set on moving there."

Hardy nodded catching Ezra's eye. "Ezra and I went to Columbia, we didn't stray too far from home, but we had some good times that we wouldn't tell her parents about. Although, Ezra was definitely the studious one."

"Well it was alright for you, Hardy here has a borderline photographic memory." Ezra explained for Aria's benefit.

"Hey, I worked, but playing was just too good. Don't make out it was all me doing the entertaining, Ezra was quite a hit with the ladies too."

"And.. that's where I make you change the subject." Ezra interrupted. He didn't need Aria hearing those kind of stories right now, or ever if he could help it. Ezra squeezed Aria's hand.

Aria laughed. "Oh you can tell me those stories when Ezra's not listening."

"Actually, none of them are to going to be as crazy as your Vegas story though are they, now that I think about it."

The evening flew by, Hardy spent the evening telling Aria some of the tamer stories from their university days. They all seemed to enjoy each other's company.

All three stumbled out of the taxi outside Ezra's apartment block. Hardy paid the cab, while Aria wrapped her arms around Ezra, burying herself within his jacket. Their drunkenness and their desire to just be touching each other making them forget their need to be more discreet.

Ella and Byron sat in silence in the car, returning from a dinner with friends. They noticed Ezra stood on the sidewalk with his arms wrapped around a dark haired girl. The girl's face was facing away from the street as Ezra placed kisses on the top of her head, his hands lodged deeply into the girl's back pockets.

"Looks like Ezra had a good night." Byron commented.

"He's such a nice guy, maybe that's his girlfriend from New York, he was very vague about it all."

"Well, the man is not going to open up about his love life to virtual strangers and with one of his students listening in is he? " Byron reasoned.

"True, I suppose. He seems a good teacher. Aria likes him, she seems to welcome his help. He's a good influence on her."

As Byron and Ella chatted, neither looked back or they would have had a clear view of the girl Ezra was leading into his apartment.

"Oh, there's Aria's car." Ella said, pointing it out a few blocks from Ezra's. "The girls must be around here somewhere. I wonder who this guy she has been seeing is. It's so hard to think she already keeps secrets from us and in a few months she'll have left home and we will know even less of what she's up to. She used to tell us everything, she's changed lately."

"It's called growing up Ella, she's a mature, sensible girl. Anyway, you kept me a secret from your parents for a long time."

"Do you blame me?' Ella added laughing.

Neither knew just how close they had come to discovering just how big a secret Aria had been keeping.

Ezra made up the sofa bed for Hardy, while Aria stood guzzling water. She'd matched the boys with their drinks for the rest of the evening.

Ezra grabbed a t-shirt from his drawer and handed it to Aria before she entered the bathroom to change, the t-shirt just covering her to her upper thighs.

Ezra smacked Hardy on the back of the head, catching him staring at Aria as she walked bare foot across the room.

"What?" Hardy asked innocently.

"You know what." Ezra replied. "Wipe your drool up and go to sleep." He shook his head before making his way towards his bed where Aria now lay under the covers.

He beamed a smile at her before quickly undressing to just his boxers and scooting under the covers to press himself against her warm body. His hands immediately finding the exposed skin where her t-shirt met her underwear. He really wished Hardy was not a few feet away at that moment. He leaned over to kiss Aria, not intending for it to get as heated as it did.

"I can hear you guys you know." Hardy's voice cut across the darkness of the apartment. "That bed had better not squeak!"

Aria knew she had turned bright red at Hardy's comment.

"Shut up dude and go to sleep." Ezra told Hardy before whispering to Aria, "Are you ok? Sorry about him."

Aria merely nodded and couldn't help but reattach her lips to Ezra's. It didn't take long for them to hear the quiet snores of Hardy sleeping.

"Do you want me to stop?" Ezra asked quietly as he ran his hands under Aria's t-shirt.

Aria answered by slipping her fingers under the waistband of his boxers and pushing them down, silencing the groan Ezra wanted to emit with her lips.

Aria was the first to wake, Hardy and Ezra both still fast asleep. Her head pounded, she needed food and coffee. Extracting herself from Ezra's grip, she grabbed his t-shirt and her jeans before locating Ezra's keys in his pocket. She leant down to whisper in his ear.

"I'm going to get us breakfast, I'll be back shortly."

Ezra groaned slightly, but smiled when she placed a kiss on his cheek.

The boys both woke with a start as the sound of the smoke alarm blared through the apartment.

"Sorry, I burnt the bacon." Aria said whilst trying to fan the smoke from near the detector.

Ezra laughed, pulling on his boxers and jeans before heading over to help her.

"Here let me, you're too short!"

Silencing the alarm, Ezra turned to see what Aria had been up to.

"I made you both breakfast." Aria beamed at him, proud of her achievement.

"And, it looks great. Thank you." Ezra said slipping his hands around her waist from behind.

Hardy sat watching, shaking his head. He could see Ezra was happy when he was around Aria, but at what cost.

Aria left the boys alone after breakfast. Hardy and Ezra sat nursing large coffees in The Grille.

"What? Just say it." Ezra said breaking the silence that he knew meant more than Hardy was letting on.

"What do you want me to say Ezra? You bring me down here to ask me to help you with a divorce for a drunken marriage, but you can't keep your hands off the girl as well as playing house with her. This girl I might add is importantly one of your students Ezra."

"I know, I know ok, it's a mess." Ezra said resting his head in his hands.

"I like her Ezra, she obviously makes you happy. This girl is different from the others and I want to tell you to ask _your wife_ out on a date to see if you really need this divorce in the end, as a part of me really thinks you won't need one. But, the fact remains that she is 18 and she is your student, and this could get you in serious trouble. You need to decide what you and Aria are, you can't keep sleeping with her while you teach her despite the fact she is your wife. Unless, you are willing to come clean about it."

Ezra remained silent, staring down at his coffee frowning.

"Dude, I'm not trying to kill your buzz here at all, I just want you to stop and think for a minute about what you want and the consequences. The divorce papers are pretty irrelevant right now, in fact you being married might help your case more if it came down to it. Aria is almost certainly going to end up in New York in a matter of months, so she can be in your life at that point. Just don't screw that up by losing your career and reputation before then. If you are intent on seeing her, you need to stop looking at her like she's your world.. or that you've seen her naked.. people will start to notice. You need to contain it within those four small walls you call an apartment."

Ezra nodded taking in everything Hardy had said.

'Oh and while we're on that subject, did you seriously think I wouldn't hear you two last night?"

"What nothing.." Ezra stammered, reddening despite himself.

"Don't even try to deny it man."

"Sorry, we got carried away." Ezra said sipping his coffee.

"I don't blame you, that wife of yours is pretty damn hot." Hardy joked before Ezra interjected.

"Exactly, _my wife_, so eyes off." Ezra laughed.

"Oh, hi Ezra." Ella said standing at the edge of their table. Ezra and Hardy had been too busy talking to notice her arrive.

"Oh, ermm. Hi Ella, this is my friend Hardy from New York." Ezra said nervously, hoping she hadn't heard him talk about _his wife_.

Ella extended her hand to Hardy. "I teach with Ezra at the high school, my daughter Aria is in Ezra's class. Byron and I saw you guys last night with a girl getting out of a cab. Big night was it? Ella joked.

Ezra sat there having gone pale. She couldn't have known it was Aria he reasoned, but it was a big wake up call.

Hardy realised Ezra was not able to reply. "Yeah it was a big night, a little bit crazy, plenty to catch up on it seemed."

"Well, I'll leave you to it, enjoy your weekend boys." Ella said before departing. She frowned as she walked off, her mind certain she had heard Ezra say the words 'my wife', but then he didn't wear a ring. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and thought no more of it.

"I'm just going to say this to you one more time this weekend. Either you put this thing with Aria on hold, or you had better contain it to those four walls. I'd say walk away but I know you won't listen to me. Come on, I saw a cinema down the street, I think the movies is all I can handle today."


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello, apologies for the delay. I started this week with no social plans and somehow ended up going to see a lot of bands - Mutemath, Zac Brown Band, Jason Mraz and the legend that is Robert Plant, I am paying for it now by being unwell. But... it is a four day holiday so I am hoping I can get ahead again. I have plotted out the remainder of the story - now I just need to find the words to convey it to you all. **

**Thank you for reading. I appreciate it. Bit of a short infill chapter - but necessary to tidy some ends up and plant some seeds!**

Byron sat marking papers in his office at Hollis College before his need for caffeine kicked in. He suffered machine coffee when he had his office hours so that he didn't stray too far in case one of his students needed assistance.

As he wandered back to his office his T.A, Matt caught up to him. They continued on the path back to his office, discussing lesson plans and the work they needed to complete. Before Matt turned to go, he seemed undecided as to whether to say something.

"Is there something else?" Byron asked, watching Matt linger in the doorway.

"Oh, it's nothing really, I probably shouldn't say anything. It's just I am sure I saw your daughter in Snookers on Friday night with two guys. I just thought you might want to know."

"Right, ok, well thanks for letting me know, I'll look into it. I appreciate you telling me." Byron stammered out trying not to show too much anger in front of his student. He knew he would be confronting Aria about it when she got home, maybe Ella had been right about her keeping too many secrets from them.

Aria and Hanna sat on Aria's bed after school flicking through magazines.

"Aria, could you come down here please?" Byron shouted from downstairs.

Aria shrugged at Hanna and smiled before leaving the room.

"Byron, give her a chance to explain before you lose your temper, I am sure it is just a misunderstanding." Aria heard Ella whisper to Byron as she edged down the stairs.

"Let me explain what?" Aria asked confused but also trying to think of how they could have found out about Ezra. "What's going on?"

"Where were you on Friday night?" Byron stated plainly.

"I was with the girls, we went for dinner, I told you that, why?" Aria responded trying to remain calm, internally panicking as to why he would be questioning her whereabouts.

"You were seen in a bar Aria, by one of my students, so why don't you stop lying and tell me who you were with on Friday?" Byron pressed, his voice rising in anger.

"Mr Montgomery, she was with me Friday night, we went for dinner late, I promise." Hanna offered as she descended the staircase.

"Dad, we went to that new Chinese place, whoever said they saw me is clearly mistaken." Aria responded trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"See Byron, I told you that it was a misunderstanding." Ella said, trying to calm him down, he always had a tendency to fire up his temper before thinking things through logically, especially when it came to Aria, he was very protective of her, especially as she grew older and seemed to need him less, she was no longer "Daddy's little girl." He struggled with it.

"Mom, is it ok, if we go over to Hanna's to study?" Aria asked wanting to escape the house, even if it meant facing a barrage of questions from Hanna.

"Sure honey, don't be late." Ella responded, thinking it would be better for her to steer clear of Byron right now.

As the girls grabbed their bags, Aria could feel Hanna's eyes on her the whole time.

"Just wait until we are in the car before you start the questions Hanna." Aria sighed exiting her bedroom first.

Aria got into the driver's seat and pulled away from the house.

"Thank you for helping me out in there.' Aria said quietly to Hanna. "I really appreciate it."

"So, are you going to make me ask where you were on Friday?" Hanna hinted.

Aria sighed, "No, I'm not trying to hide anything from you, it's just it's not just me that is involved here."

"Aria, I know who you were with, I'm not stupid, and you know what, if you are not comfortable telling me the whole story, that's ok too." Hanna replied.

Aria knew that for all the jokes and comments Hanna liked to make, she was in-fact the most loyal of her friends.

"I met Ezra and his friend Hardy at Snookers, I guess we didn't think it through fully." Aria said dejectedly.

"He's introducing you to his friends? What exactly is going on with you two?"

"We all met Hardy in Las Vegas." Aria responded.

"Not the point Aria, I know you are avoiding the real question I asked."

"I'm not avoiding it, well I am, I don't know what is going on Hanna, and even if I did I cannot shout about it, I cannot say what I really think about him to anyone."

"Well can you say what he's like in bed?" Hanna grinned.

Both girls burst into laughter, easing the tension that had been there before.

"Come on Aria, you can give me that much?"

"Han, I am not telling you that! And why do you even want to know?"

"Fine, but you're blushing, that tells me enough, plus you are obviously going back for more."

"I'm not." Aria responded, but Hanna raised her eyebrow at her. "Fine, I went back for more. Are you satisfied now?"

"No, but I'll let you off the hook for now. He must like you too though, and remember what I said about you both being _alone_ in New York in the near future."

Aria smiled at Hanna, she appreciated that she was trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel, Hanna would find it with everything.

Aria knew that New York would mean her and Ezra would have a clean slate away from everyone, it was just surviving until then, not that she knew if he wanted to survive until then too.

As Aria got ready for bed, her phone beeped.

_How was your day? Do you want to come round for dinner tomorrow so we can talk? I'll cook. Xoxo_

Aria smiled, hearing from Ezra always gave her butterflies.

_You cook? You are a man of many talents. I'd love to come over, I can fill you in on my eventful day. Wish I could be there with you right now. Xoxo_

_I wish you were here too. Xoxo_

Ezra rushed around the grocery store after work, cooking was not his strong point, but he wanted to make an effort to try, picking up flowers for Aria on his way home.

Ezra had everything under control as he heard Aria knock on his door. He wiped his hands and grabbed the flowers before rushing to open the door. Aria grinned and reached for his waist, edging him into the apartment enough to close the door, before leaning up to bring her lips millimetres from his.

"Are those for me?" Aria asked referring to the flowers Ezra held.

Ezra gulped and managed to croak out a yes as a response, having Aria this close and not having kissed her was torture.

"Something smells good in here." Aria whispered again, she knew she was teasing Ezra right now, slipping her hands up under his t-shirt.

"If you keep this up, dinner won't smell so good." Ezra said quietly, staring at Aria's lips.

"I should let you get back to it then." Aria smirked, removing her hands from under his shirt, causing Ezra to groan.

"I have a few minutes to spare." Ezra responded, pulling Aria back against him and attacking her lips with his.

Ezra broke the kiss as it began to spiral out of control.

"Now who's the tease?" Aria laughed.

"Just trying to feed my girl something edible." Ezra smiled, finally handing Aria the flowers he had been holding.

Both realised he had called her _his girl. _

After eating Aria and Ezra lay fully clothed on his bed, their legs entwined, moments of kissing and cuddling breaking the comfortable silence they enjoyed.

"So, how did the rest of the weekend with Hardy go?" Aria asked.

"It was good, he said his piece about us after you left on Saturday and the rest of the weekend we were just two friends hanging out. He rang earlier actually, he has some papers for us to fill in." Ezra said while playing with Aria's necklace.

"And.. what was his _piece about us_? Do I want to hear it?" Aria asked nervously.

"Well, he knew I wouldn't listen if he told me to stay away from you. He just laid out the options I suppose."

"And what are the options here Ezra?" Aria asked softly.

"That's the big question. I don't want to get you into something that keeps building more and more lies Aria.."

"You're not getting me in to something I am not wanting to be in Ezra." Aria took a deep breath. "I want to be with you."

"So you are _my girl_?"

Both of them laughed.

"Yes, I am. And, I will be all yours, just us in New York in a matter of months."

"And that cannot come soon enough." Ezra said as he rolled on top of Aria. "Can we stay here in bed until then?"

"Why? What do you want me in your bed for?"

Ezra grinned before making Aria realise she might not want to leave the bed again ever.

Aria lay cuddling into Ezra's side, they knew she would have to leave soon.

"In all seriousness though, we have to confine us to this room." Ezra said.

"I know, Friday has taught us that."

"Why? What happened?" Ezra asked concerned.

"Well my dad said a student of his saw me in a bar with two guys. Hanna was there when he confronted me and she covered for me saying we were at dinner together."

"And he believed her?"

"Yeah, I think my mom was convinced it was a misunderstanding so she calmed him down."

"Your mom saw us too, she doesn't know she did though. She saw me standing with you while Hardy paid for the cab."

"Ok, so no more taking me to bars, we have deduced that ends in trouble." Aria gave Ezra a little smile.

He smiled, he wanted to be able to go outdoors with her, but for now he would accept what he had with her.

"I should go though. I can stay over on weekends." Aria said kissing Ezra lightly before sitting up to hunt for her clothes.

"Then I will spend all week living for the weekends." Ezra said as he sat up and kissed Aria's neck as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Don't get too attached to my neck, you know what happened last time." Aria laughed.

Ezra walked Aria to the door, reluctant to let her go.

"We'll be in New York in no time, agreed?" Aria asked as she turned to leave.

"Agreed."


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello, so a few guessed where this was going next, so I hope that's ok. I've managed to get a little bit ahead again, which makes it a bit easier. **

**I hope you are all still enjoying the story.**

**Happy Easter. **

Aria lay on Ezra's couch doing her homework as Ezra sat massaging her feet watching old movies. They spent most of their weekends absorbing as much time and contact as they could with each other so that they could survive the five long school days that left them stealing glances and short conversations between classes. Whilst Hanna knew where Aria spent the majority of her weekends, providing alibis when needed, the other girls suspected nothing, figuring Aria had chosen to steer clear of anything more with Ezra and kept herself busy studying. She seemed happy to them.

"You know I'd get this homework done a lot quicker if you just helped me." Aria pouted.

"You don't need my help, you are more than capable of doing it yourself. Anyway, I am not favouring you."

"Says the man who is massaging my feet right now?" Aria laughed.

"Ok, I favour you with absolutely everything else but your English papers. As your teacher I want to tell you to put as much effort into your paper as possible, but as your impatient boyfriend, impatient husband technically.." Ezra pulled Aria up onto his lap "I want you to hurry up and finish that paper so I can have your undivided attention."

"Then I am officially done with my paper.. now what do you need my attention for?" Aria said placing light kisses on Ezra's lips.

"Well I'm not complaining about that kind of attention at all.. I was actually wanting to talk about spring break in a few weeks and what you are planning on doing for it?" Ezra said as he rubbed his hands along Aria's thighs.

"I'm not into the whole trashy mass spring break holiday, getting drunk and being stupid."

"Did you form this decision before or after you met and married me in Vegas?" Ezra laughed.

"Oh, you're funny." Aria said rolling her eyes, as Ezra kissed her nose.

"It's Hardy's brother's wedding so I have to go back to New York for a few days at least. Hardy has finalised all the annulment papers for us to sign, I'll pick them up when I'm there for us."

"I guess I'm going to study, hang out with the girls, nothing too wild. I'll miss you though."

"Ok, I'm just going to throw my crazy idea out there and see how it goes."

Aria looked at Ezra puzzled.

"Will you come to the wedding with me? Come stay in New York with me?"

"You're being serious right now aren't you?" Aria responded, stunned at his request.

"I think I am, in New York we can just be ourselves, together for a few days with no one, well except Hardy, knowing our history, we can just relax and be normal."

Aria sighed "And precisely how am I meant to explain this trip to my parents, because without that little hitch you know I'd be home packing right now."

"Right, well I thought maybe you could say you are visiting campus or something like that, do you have any friends you could say you are visiting? You know I hate the lies we keep telling, but I think we need this trip, it's not healthy us spending all our time in my apartment. Don't get me wrong I will take this over nothing any day to be with you, it's completely up to you. I just want you to be there with me. I know it's a completely selfish thing for me to ask you to do. "

"Hey, never think that ok, you sacrifice so much for me, including fresh air on your weekends. So let me worry about how I get to New York, you're right we do need this, I mean I might not like you when you're out in public."

"I was out in public when you met me and you liked me just fine then." Ezra smiled before kissing Aria and reaching down to pull out her necklace "You liked me enough to marry me I think you'll find."

"Ohhh so you are playing the marriage card, ok well I get to play it too, your wife here is _really _hungry."

"Is she now? I was hoping she would play that card for something else." Ezra said between kisses he began placing on Aria's neck and chest.

"Well we can do some of the _something else_ first then I was thinking _you_ could do the trip to the grocery store for supplies." Aria said as she ran her hands through Ezra's messy curls.

"Deal." Ezra said as he picked Aria up and carried her across the room to the bed.

Ezra stood staring at the cabinet full of chocolates and cakes in the bakery, unable to decide what Aria might like.

"Go for the Red Velvet cake." Hanna said, making Ezra jump. "Trust me." She smiled.

"Thanks." Ezra replied before giving his order for the cake and coffees to the assistant, indicating to Hanna to add her order to his. Hanna knew Aria's complicated coffee order well enough to know Ezra was buying it for her.

Hanna and Ezra stood in awkward silence waiting for their coffees.

"So, will you be staying in town for spring break or heading back to New York?" Hanna asked.

"Uh, I have a wedding to go to, so I definitely will head back for some of the break. How about yourself? Any plans?"

"The girls and I hadn't really thought about doing much, especially after Vegas. Maybe this time we might actually go to Spencer cabin."

Ezra laughed before approaching the counter to collect their coffees, handing Hanna hers.

"Thank you, you know for everything. I, well we, appreciate it." Ezra said quietly so only Hanna would hear.

"I know, say hi from me."

"I will, see you Monday." Ezra said before heading back towards his apartment.

Opening the door, he could hear Aria in the shower, placing the bags on the counter before he poked his head around the bathroom door.

"Hey, I'm back. I got you coffee."

"Oh great, thanks, can you hand me a towel please hun?"

Ezra grabbed the towel from the rail and held it open for Aria to step into. He wrapped his arms around her, inhaling the smell of her shampoo.

"You smell great. I'm going to unpack the shopping. I'll leave you to it."

Aria walked barefoot across the apartment to the chest of drawers beside Ezra's bed. Ezra had ended up clearing her a space in them for her. Over time he had found more and more signs of Aria in his apartment, her clothes in with his laundry, her make up in the bathroom and various school textbooks scattered across the coffee table. As much as he wanted to put a photo of them together up, he had resisted.

"I saw Hanna while I was out." Ezra said as he handed the now dressed Aria her coffee. "She said to say hi, your very unique coffee order could hardly be passed off as mine."

Aria laughed. "I should call her really."

"She asked me if I was going home for spring break, so she knows I will be in New York."

"Ok well, I think one of the girls is going to need to help me with an alibi or be heading to New York too, otherwise my mother is going to want to come too. I think it is best I run it past Hanna for now, seeing as she knows the most. Are you ok with that?"

"It's not ideal, but I understand that you need someone else to help me make this happen. If you are not comfortable doing this Aria, I totally understand. Please don't risk us if you think this won't work out, we will be alone in New York in a few months anyway."

"I know, but I want to come with you. Let me call Hanna and see what she thinks. Remember she is a world class schemer, I wouldn't be standing here with you now if she wasn't."

"I did remember to thank her earlier" Ezra said, placing a light kiss on Aria's lips before grabbing a newspaper and heading towards the couch, pulling Aria along with him.

Aria settled on the couch, Ezra's legs across her lap as he spread the newspaper out to read, she picked up her phone to call Hanna.

"Hey Han, what are you up to?"

"Just heading to Caleb's, what about you?"

"Sat on the couch, Ezra's reading the paper."

"Wow, you two are really boring."

Aria laughed, turning to Ezra, "Hanna says you're boring."

"I call it well read, and remind her who paid for that coffee she is drinking."

"He should be paying for a lot more than a coffee, is that how much he values spending time with you? You need to find someone else Ar!"

Ezra chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"We both appreciate you Han. I'll buy you dinner, then we'll call it evens!"

Hanna laughed, "so I hear Ezra is going to New York for spring break. Are you thinking of going too?"

"Funny you should say that, that's why I am calling. I need you to help me get there. Airtight alibis and all that. You are the expert at it seemingly. "

"Ohhh so you are tired of staying in bed together all day and want to take it to the next level with a bit of illicit hand holding on New York sidewalks. I take it back, you two are totally not boring at all!'

Aria laughed, Hanna always brightened her day.

"Well I might be able to help you, Spencer is heading to New York to see some of her family for the weekend, and I am always happy to go shopping obviously, so you can sell it to your parents as a girly weekend away. It would probably be easier if you told Spencer though, or we just have to stay somewhere separate to her and then maybe we don't need to say anything.

"Ok, let me talk to Ezra and I'll let you know on Monday. Have fun with Caleb. You're the best Han."

"Enjoy your boring weekend!" Hanna said as she hung up.

Aria relayed the conversation to Ezra who sat rubbing his forehead as he tried to get his head around the next mountain of lies they were about to tell, and he was the one who suggested it in the first place.

"I guess it comes down to whether you tell Spencer the truth or not. That is your decision, and I trust your judgement on it. If you don't tell her, you can say that you and Hanna are going to shop, see the sights. She visits family, Hanna will have to stay with us at my place, and you meet up with Spencer while you are there."

"You really want Hanna staying with us?" Aria asked surprised.

"No, but I am not having her staying on her own somewhere. The bedrooms aren't next to each other if that's what you are thinking. If you tell Spencer, then Hanna has someone else to hang out with even if she stays at mine, then I get more time with you all to myself."

"Do you realise how much trouble this could cause if we get found out?" Aria asked as the reality dawned on her.

"I'm trying really hard not to think about it right now." Ezra sighed, giving Aria a weak smile.

"We're going to be ok." Aria said reaching out to entwine her fingers with Ezra's.

They passed the rest of the afternoon watching movies and eating the cake Ezra had bought.

Aria returned home early the next morning to find her mother alone in the kitchen.

"Hey honey, I haven't seen you much lately, how have you been?" Ella asked, pouring Aria a cup of coffee and placing it on the kitchen table.

"I'm good." Aria took a large gulp of coffee. "Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you, the girls are thinking of going to New York for a weekend during spring break and I wanted to know if it was ok if I went too?"

Aria let out a breath, relieved with having got the question out of the way.

"Well honey, when are you going to study?"

"We'll only go for a long weekend and I can study when I get back, everyone else is going on week long breaks, please mom, it'll give me a chance to have a look at a couple of campuses again, get used to the idea of living there."

"Ok, let me talk it over with your father, I'm guessing you were leaving that part to me." Ella smiled.

"Well… He listens to you." Aria smiled back.

"He's just finding it hard losing his little girl, you'll be leaving soon and you're going to find some guy who is going to be your world, he's not going to be the one you need anymore."

'Dad and I haven't seen eye to eye for a long time mom, look how ready he was to accuse me of lying the other week."

Aria knew she was treading on thin ice by bringing that night up again but she'd said it before she thought it through.

"He's just being protective Aria, we don't know what guys you are hanging around with, you never introduce us to any of them."

"When I'm ready I will. Can we drop this now?" Aria asked getting nervous about her mother asking too many questions about guys.

"Fine, we'll drop it, when you're ready."

Aria made her decision about Spencer's involvement in the New York weekend after the talk with her mother. She felt awful lying to her friends, she was choosing to put Ezra above her honesty to them and it was not sitting easy with her. She decided it was protecting Spencer if she didn't tell her why her and Hanna were really tagging along to New York.

Dialling Ezra's number she sat on her bed needing to hear the sound of his voice.

"Hey you, it's lonely here without you on this couch."

"I'm lonely without you too. I need a hug."

"Why hun? What's happened?" Ezra asked concerned.

"Oh nothing, I'm just feeling selfish about my decision to not tell Spencer about why I'm coming to New York. Do friends do that to each other?"

Ezra sighed. "Aria, please remember it was a crazy idea and a selfish request on my part to have you to myself and show you off, please don't let this ruin your friendships ok. If it's too much, if it's going to cause you to get upset, I won't let you come. We can wait, do this another time without the sneaking around, I can go up there on my own and be back before you know it."

"I want to come, it'll be ok, she'll forgive me. Anyway, remember that bigger secret we're keeping from everyone. That'll make the rest seem irrelevant anyway right?"

"We'll finalise everything while we are there. Then I'll be free from you playing the wife card on me." Ezra said trying to cheer Aria up.

"Hey, you gave as good as you got mister. Somehow though I think the girlfriend card will carry the same weight with you."

"When it comes to you of course it does. Now, onto more important stuff.. what are you wearing?"

Aria laughed loudly. "Are you kidding me? Did you seriously just ask that?"

"It was worth a try, I don't need you to tell me anyway, I've got a nice stash of memories I can sift through."

"OK, well sift a little quieter, I'm off to re-read my paper you refused to help me with."

"See you tomorrow for the start of five long, frustrating days."

"Keep thinking of New York and all that hand holding you get to do with me."

"Hand holding? I'm going to need more than that?"

"Night trouble." Aria smiled as she hung up the phone, biting her lip as a thought crossed her mind.

Getting off the bed and locking her door, Aria stripped down to her underwear and took a photo to send to Ezra. She knew he would not keep it on his phone in case it was seen but seeing as he was lonely right now, she didn't see any harm in it.

Seconds after she sent the picture, her phone beeped with a new text.

_Mrs Fitz you are beautiful. xoxo_


	14. Chapter 14

**Thanks for sticking with me.. I can't decide if I am being too boring and if not enough is happening..let me know what you think. I don't want to rock the boat for the sake of it, but am I being too fluffy? I definitely have no imagination for bringing an -A character in, that wasn't my intention, but just hoping no one is bored. **

**You will be glad to hear I do have at least another one maybe two chapters already done, and am thinking of wording for finale already. **

**I hope you have a lovely day!**

Ella pulled into the drop off zone at the airport, Hanna and Aria dragged their bags out of the car. Spencer was meeting them in the departures lounge. Emily had gone off to swim camp for the holidays and was missing out on the trip. She needed to train for her swim scholarship. Ezra had left the day before so that he could tidy his apartment ready for the girls to arrive.

"Have fun girls, try not to buy everything in the city." Ella said before leaving.

The girls spotted Spencer sitting in a coffee shop.

"Hey Spence, so what's your plans this weekend?" Hanna asked.

"Well Melissa, the over achieving sister that she is, has invited half the family to see her new place and probably impress us with her ability to pass off catered food as something she cooked with her own fair hands. I suspect there is some guy involved somewhere, trust funded, ivy league type. You guys have to save me from this as much as possible. Just call me and tell me you're lost or something. Where are you guys staying anyway?"

"Oh some small hotel near Columbia, thought I'd get a feel for the area you know."

"Good idea. It all seems so surreal that we'll all be living apart in a few months."

The girls heard their flight being called and made their way to the gate. Hanna and Aria still feeling uneasy at the lies.

"So do you want to share a cab to the city? We'll drop you off first Spence so we know you are ok and then we know where you are too?"

"Sure, sounds good, I'll be making my parents pay for everything this weekend seeing as I am here under duress. You have to call me every time you hit the shops, or a bar, I presume we all brought those IDs with us?"

"Of course, cocktails in the Big Apple is a must right?" Hanna responded.

Hanna and Spencer chatted the whole ride to the city, Aria simply stared out the window. She was nervous about how this weekend was going to go with Ezra, going to the wedding with him as his girlfriend, well wife, finally being able to go out in public and holding the lie together to keep the whole thing between themselves after. Aria worried that people would be able to see through their lie and they'd know she was still in high school, the high school he worked at. Ezra had tried to everything to make her stop thinking like that but it hadn't made her feel any better.

"Are you ok Aria?" Spencer asked, looking across at her.

"I'm fine, sorry, just tired and thinking. This weekend is going to be fun, we'll meet up."

The cab pulled up to Spencer's sister's apartment, Spencer reluctantly said her goodbyes and made plans to meet them to shop later in the day.

"Hey cheer up, you can't miss Fitzy that much already, you only dropped him at the airport yesterday, you'll be skipping down the sidewalks together in a matter of minutes."

Aria chuckled. "It's not that, it's just, what if his friends don't like me, what if they see how young I am and I'm not good enough for him?"

"Are you kidding me Aria, there is no way they will think that, and even if they do, who cares? Ezra certainly won't, he wouldn't be doing all this for you if he didn't want to be with you. The man is letting me stay in his apartment, come on, he has to like to you? Hanna smiled.

"That is true, do you think I should dump him? He clearly is mildly insane." Aria laughed.

The cab pulled up outside Ezra's.

"Wow, nice, Fitzy's got money, good catch Aria."

"Han, go easy on him ok, please for me?"

"Fine, for you."

Aria turned to see Ezra bounding down the steps to meet them.

"You made it." He said wrapping his arms around Aria, and kissing her lightly on the lips, "I missed you."

"Seriously, it was a night? You two are pathetic." Hanna said causing Ezra to pull back from Aria.

"Nice to see you too Hanna. Charming as ever I see."

Ezra reached down to grab their bags to show them inside. Aria hooked her finger into the loop of his jeans and followed behind him.

"So, welcome to my home." Ezra said as the girls stood overwhelmed by the apartment.

"I love it" Aria said thinking it was perfect, it was like his studio in Rosewood, full of books and prints. It screamed Ezra. Ezra smiled at her as she slipped her hand into his.

"So Hanna, you can have the bedroom down the hall here, it has a full ensuite and I left a key for the apartment in there too. I figured as we will be at the wedding for the day you'll want to come and go anyway. There's an after reception catch up in bar near here that you are welcome to come to."

"Great thanks, that'd be nice. I appreciate it." Hanna said, genuinely impressed that Ezra was being thoughtful. She never got chance to interact with him like this normally or to know him as Aria's boyfriend rather than their English teacher.

"There's another bedroom opposite yours and our bedroom is at the other end. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen, I did some shopping earlier, the kitchen's kinda for show, I eat take out _a lot._"

The girls laughed noticing the large untouched new kitchen. The kitchen was open plan with the lounge and dining area. Several of the walls were lined with floor to ceiling book shelves.

"It's not as tidy as usual, obviously some of my stuff is in Rosewood."

"So are there any exam paper answers lying around?" Hanna asked.

Ezra laughed. "Sure, all the set texts are on the book shelves somewhere, feel free to read them if that's really how you want to spend your time."

Aria laughed, "Han, you won't get anything out of him, believe me, I've tried that many times."

Ezra reddened at the memories of the times Aria had tried to extract answers from him. She'd failed, but he'd definitely enjoyed the benefits of her efforts.

Hanna laughed at Ezra's awkwardness, "Ok, well I am going to get out of your hair and hit the shops. I have some serious shopping to do."

"You don't have to disappear straight away Han."

"Aria, we all know none of you can match my stamina for shopping, I am not limiting my time to dragging you and Spencer whining around with me. I'll be fine, I'll call Spencer anyway later and meet up with her. I'll tell her you are checking out campus early to get it out of the way." Hanna picked up her handbag and threw Ezra's apartment key into it. "Oh and you guys are going to start christening this place any minute and I really don't need to hear that."

"Hanna jees.. filter." Aria spluttered, shocked at Hanna's comment.

Hanna merely winked and walked out.

"Is she going to be ok?" Ezra asked as he heard the front door close.

"Unfortunately, I think she will be." Aria smiled as she wrapped her hands around his waist and kissed him. "I didn't get to say a proper hello before."

"I didn't get to finish the tour of the apartment either." Ezra replied kissing her.

"But what could there possibly be left for you to show me?" Aria asked knowing full well where they hadn't been.

Ezra reached down and picked Aria up, finding his way to his bedroom by memory as he attached his lips to hers. Placing Aria in the middle of his bed, he leaned over her.

"Welcome home Mrs Fitz." Ezra said quietly, locking eyes with Aria.

Aria let a tear fall in happiness. "I love you."

Ezra felt his heart pound, they hadn't said those words before. "I love you too"

Everything happened slowly from that point. Neither wanting to rush anything.

"So as much as I want to stay in bed all day with you. I have something to ask you."

Aria looked up at Ezra confused.

"Will you go on a date with me?"

Aria laughed loudly, Ezra loved hearing that sound.

"Yes, I will."

"Good, because otherwise this weekend could get pretty awkward." Ezra laughed.

As soon as they were dressed and outside the door, Ezra held out his hand for Aria. She grinned, linking her fingers in his and placing her other hand over the top to grip him tightly. They could finally be themselves, even if it was just for a few days.

Ezra walked with Aria towards Columbia, pointing out his favourite eating spots and recalling tales of his university days. Stopping for coffee, sitting outside at the table with their fingers linked across the table top, Ezra hadn't planned anything in particular for their date, knowing that these little things were worth more than any grand gesture he could ever make. Aria knew she would pinpoint these days as some of the happiest in her life.

Ezra took Aria to the theatre in the evening, eating out in a restaurant and walking home hand in hand eating ice creams. Hanna told Spencer that Aria had a headache wanted to stay in while they met for dinner.

Aria woke with a smile on her face, she felt an overwhelming sense of happiness, her mood only mildly dampened when she remembered the wedding they were attending later in the day. She turned to face Ezra before her nerves took hold. He smiled as he felt her move in his arms.

"Morning, did you sleep well?" Ezra mumbled.

"Definitely, this bed is seriously comfortable."

Ezra smiled, stroking his hand up and down Aria's side lightly. "Well we don't have to get up yet?"

Aria shuffled closer and causing Ezra to let out a groan and immediately grip her hips tight to his.

"Aria, are you awake? I'm going to get coffee, do you guys want some?" Hanna's voiced boomed from the other side of the door.

Ezra let out another groan but continued his assault on Aria's neck and chest.

"Yes please Han, I'll have my usual and Ezra will have a long black. Thanks, we'll be up when you get back." Aria replied trying to keep her breath steady as Ezra's hand slipped lower.

"You realise she will be back in 10 minutes." Aria said between moans.

"Unfortunately yes, but I can work with 10 minutes." Ezra grinned before rolling Aria over.

Hanna sat at the kitchen workbench sipping her coffee as Aria emerged from the bedroom in Ezra's t-shirt. She smirked at the sight. "Morning!"

"Morning Han. Thanks for the coffee. I'm not sure Ezra will thank you though."

Both girls grinned.

"Should I call your look glowing or sweaty?" Hanna asked.

"We'll call it happy." Aria smiled back.

"You really are aren't you?"

"Really are what?" Ezra asked, hearing Hanna's question as he entered the kitchen and went to stand behind Aria so he could wrap his arms around her.

"Happy, her glow this morning." Hanna explained.

Ezra bent his head to look at Aria's face, "hmmm it's a good look. Who's up for breakfast my shout, I need a big feed before sitting through this boring wedding ceremony?"

"I'll go shower, then we can go. Play nice while I'm gone." Aria said before taking her coffee with her to the bedroom.

Ezra's eyes following her out the room, causing Hanna to chuckle.

"Guilty." Ezra said reddening.

"It's good. I don't get to see you like this with each other. I mean I guessed you liked her from the extents you guys go to see each other, but it's just good to see you interact. I put you down as a boring teacher."

Ezra laughed, "thanks, I think.. and again it's well read, not boring!"

"I'll still give you the talk though."

Ezra looked at her confused.

"You know the talk, the one where I tell you that if you hurt her, I will cut your jewels off and.."

Ezra smiled. "Hanna, I get it, loud and clear. I'm not going to hurt her."

"Everyone says that."

"Well I love her." Ezra responded with a straight face.

Hanna sat stunned at his response. "Good answer."

Aria re-entered the room, and looked between the two of them. "Everything ok."

"Yep, Hanna was just telling me about jewels."

Aria creased her brow confused at what was going on.

As the three of them sat at a café, Ezra's phone started to ring.

"It's my mother."

"You can answer it, we don't mind." Aria said.

"Mom, how are you?"

Aria and Hanna sat listening to Ezra's side of the conversation.

"I'm fine.. Well no, I am only here for the wedding. You haven't spoken to me in months, why would it matter that I am here for a weekend and not seeing you? You never talk to me when I live here… Well I'm sorry, I'm busy right now, I'm with my girlfriend and her friend, we have plans. I appreciate your call but we'll need to meet up another time. I have to go. Bye."

"Wow so dealing with parents doesn't get easier with age then?" Hanna commented.

"Sorry about that, my mother and I don't get along so well. She expects everyone to jump when she says so. The one advantage of age is I don't have to anymore."

Aria rubbed her hand up and down Ezra's thigh to comfort him.

As they walked back to Ezra's apartment, Spencer rang Hanna's phone.

"Hey Han, where are you guys? I can't handle it here, I'm coming to stay with you instead." Spencer stated.

Hanna held her hand over the receiver and relayed this to Aria, panicking at the situation.

"Hanna, are you there?"

"Uh yeah I'm here, give me a sec, I need to check the address with Aria."

Holding the phone away from her, "shit Aria what do we say?"

Aria stood speechless as Hanna tried to indicate to her to give her an answer.

"Give her my address." Ezra spoke up. "You have to now."

"Hey Spence, I'll text you the address now, but umm just don't get too mad when you get here ok and call me when you are outside?"

"Get mad? Why would I get mad? God you're weird sometimes." Spencer responded.

Hanging up and sending the text to Spencer, Hanna turned to Aria, "I'm sorry Ar, what else could I do?"

"Han, this is not your fault. It's ok, we'll deal with it, I'm to blame."

Aria looked up at Ezra, whose arm was slung across her shoulder, her fingers linked with his.

"Are you sure you are ok with this?"

"It's fine, I have you here with me, yes the less people that knew the better, but I don't believe Spencer would ever expose us, no matter how angry she might be for not being told why you are really here. She's one of your best friends, give her credit for that."

"Is he always this rational?" Hanna asked Aria.

Aria laughed. "Definitely not, this whole trip was his idea. There's quite a bit of crazy lurking beneath those sweater vests he insists on wearing."

"I like my sweater vests."

"That's the problem hun. Hanna and I will go shopping for you one day and then I might conveniently remove them from your drawers in your sleep."

The girls laughed while Ezra frowned at them.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello again, your lovely words of encouragement make me smile a lot. I hope you enjoy the next installment. **

**I hope you a lovely weekend. Enjoy.. **

Spencer exited the cab and looked around her in confusion at the lack of hotel signage. Pulling her phone out to check the address, she mounted the stairs to the front door with her bags. Looking at the name plate, Spencer soon realised why Hanna had told her not to get mad, the name Fitz printed neatly by the buzzer.

"Hey Spence, I'm coming down now" Aria's voice came from the buzzer.

Aria opened the door and simply stared at Spencer, neither knowing what they were supposed to say.

"I'm sorry I lied Spencer. Please don't be mad at Hanna for this."

"Lied about New York or lied about the fact you are apparently playing house with _Mr Fitz_? What are you thinking? You could ruin everything you have worked for over this. Can't you see what it will do to you if people find out? And correct me if I'm wrong Aria, but we had a conversation where you said yourself this was not worth the risk. Was that just to appease me the whole time?"

"I know Spence, I said that and I wanted to think a part of me meant it, but there's a lot more to the story."

"So tell me the story Aria."

"I can't right now, one day I will ok, but for now can you just trust me? Trust that whilst this might look completely stupid, it feels right. I love him Spence and he loves me. Just spend some time with us, this is the first chance we are getting to be around my friends and his. We needed this weekend, we are going to survive the school year Spence, this isn't some inappropriate schoolgirl crush, I swear to you. Ezra could have walked away from this too, he hasn't. If he wasn't our teacher Spence I would be able to openly date him, and remember I met him before school, I am not chasing a teacher, to me he is the guy from the bar. I don't expect you to like him, but I need you to still like me. I need you Spence. Please can you give us a chance to enjoy this weekend, all of us, as a group of friends, letting Ezra be a part of our lives too?"

"Fine, but he has a lot to prove, and this is entirely because you're one of my best friends." Spencer responded, smiling slightly, Aria's speech making her see a different perspective on their relationship.

Opening the door to allow Spencer to enter, the girls saw Ezra coming towards them.

"Hey Spencer, can I take your bags for you?"

"Uhh sure Mr Fitz."

Ezra laughed, "Please can you call me Ezra, or if you like to follow by Hanna's example use _Fitzy_ at least. It's the holidays and despite what students think, I like to think I have a life outside my job. And you saying _Mr Fitz_ is going to make this even more awkward than it is already. Deal?"

Ezra showed Spencer her room before the girls lounged on the couches.

"I'm going to make myself scarce, iron my shirt for later, Aria hun do you want me to steam your dress?"

"Are you sure he's not gay Aria?" Spencer deadpanned.

"Oh just you wait, these two don't keep their hands off each other." Hanna smirked.

Aria rolled her eyes at her friends before walking over to Ezra. Slipping her hands round his waist.

"Are you sure you don't mind? I'll get the girls to start on my hair. You don't have to hide."

Ezra ran his hand across Aria's hair, "I don't mind, and I am not hiding, I'm avoiding Hanna." He grinned as he kissed Aria and walked into the bedroom, turning on the stereo as he went.

"I heard that" Hanna retorted causing the others to laugh.

"Hanna you're on make up, Spence you're on hair."

"Why? What's happening?"

"The main reasons I came to New York is to go to a wedding with Ezra. You remember Hardy from Vegas? Well, it's his brother's wedding. I am so nervous about it. I really want to make a good impression and fit in. Do you think they'll know I'm in high school?"

"Who cares if they do know that, you might need to leave out the fact it's the same one as Ezra's teaching at, but you are only what 4, 5 years apart, you're parents have a bigger age gap than that Aria. Don't worry, Ezra is not going to leave you exposed." Hanna reasoned.

The girls sat helping Aria get ready. Ezra came out and joined the girls once he had changed, he wore a fitted light blue shirt and skinny tie to match Aria's dress which was dark blue. Aria bit her lip when she saw him and wondered why when you saw a guy dressed so well, all you wanted to do was get him out of the clothes again as quick as possible.

Ezra caught her staring and winked at her.

"What jewellery are you wearing Aria? What's the necklace you have on, you should wear something shorter?" Hanna asked reaching to pull Aria's necklace up.

Aria quickly grabbed the necklace and as she pulled it out, hiding the ring in her palm. "This one stays, Ezra bought it for me, it's an A". Dropping the necklace back under her top and smiling at Ezra. "I'm going to get changed". Aria stood up, before walking across to Ezra and holding out her hand for him to go with her.

Ezra sat on the bed watching Aria change, standing to do the zip up on her dress when she needed him to.

"So, will you know many people at this wedding?" Aria asked.

"I'd say so, Ethan is a year old than Hardy and I, so we have most of the same friends. I won't leave you on your own, I promise, Hardy will keep an eye out for you too." Ezra said taking both of Aria's hands and pulling her to stand between his legs as he sat. "You look stunning by the way."

Aria blushed, "thank you."

"I got you something." Ezra said reaching into his suit pocket and pulling out a jewellery box, containing a thin bracelet.

"Good job I got you something too then." Aria grinned, reaching to a box she'd placed on the counter, she'd found a silver set of cufflinks that looked like a stack of books. Ezra grinned and let her put them on his shirt.

"Are you ready to go?" Ezra asked as he stood.

"Ready as I'll ever be, are you sure I look ok?"

"You are beautiful, I could never think anything else." Ezra said kissing her lips lightly, tasting the sweet gloss she had used.

Exiting the room holding hands, the girls wolf whistled their entry.

"Stand still we should take a picture." Hanna said, looking around for a phone.

"Here use my camera." Aria said handing it to Hanna, wanting to make sure she had control of all photos of them for now.

The couple posed for photos, knowing they would have to keep them to themselves, but enjoying the opportunity to have them taken together.

The wedding ceremony itself took place in a small church nearby. They had slipped in and had had little time to speak to many people before it began. The reception was being held in a small boutique restaurant nearby. Ezra had kept his hand tightly linked to Aria's throughout.

Ezra waved as he saw Hardy approach.

"Mr. and Mrs. Fitz, good to see you." Hardy winked at Aria to show he was joking at calling her Mrs. Fitz, before kissing her cheek.

He pulled out an envelope of papers and passed them to Ezra. "I'm giving you these but promise me you two will be civil for the day, don't bring your divorce woes to today's happy day. I know you two will be arguing over everything." Hardy grinned as Ezra rolled his eyes at him, pulling Aria in front of him so he could wrap his arms around her, leaning down to kiss her neck.

"I'm sat on your table so we can catch up properly later. Just to warn you that Jackie's here Ezra, I didn't think she'd been invited. Speak of the devil re-incarnated, she's heading this way."

Ezra wrapped his arms a bit tighter around Aria as he felt her flinch at the mention of another girl's name, leaning his head down to be able to whisper in her ear.

"I'm sorry I didn't know she'd be here. I love you."

Aria couldn't help but smile, she never wanted to be used to hearing those words from him.

"Hi Ezra, Hardy, nice to see you both. Ezra you look great." Jackie smiled him.

Ezra merely nodded, refusing to acknowledge her presence.

"Hi I'm Aria, Ezra's girlfriend."

Ezra and Hardy chuckled at Aria's 'territory marking'.

"Right, hi Aria" Jackie stuttered, having Aria being so confident had thrown her.

"Aria hun, do you want to go get a drink with me before the reception." Ezra said trying to get away from Jackie.

"Sure I'd love to." Aria beamed directly at Jackie before turning to wrap her arm around Ezra's waist as he draped his arm around hers.

Hardy and Jackie watched them walk away, their attention concentrated solely on each other.

"I wouldn't even waste your breath trying to talk to him anymore Jackie. You screwed up, he never loved you. You know that right?"

"He's just with her while he's out of town, when he's back he'll realise what he's missing." Jackie whined.

"I tell you what, I will bet you every single thing I own that he marries that girl." Hardy said with a smirk on his face, offering his hand for Jackie to shake.

Jackie stared at him confused.

"The offer is there, I'm serious." Hardy pushed. "Believe me, they are in temporary denial about their marital.. future.." Hardy paused choosing his words wisely, "but I know they're in for the long haul."

Jackie rolled her eyes and turned to walk away, leaving Hardy to chuckle to himself.

Ezra pulled Aria into a bar next to the reception venue, a few other guests had congregated there too. Finding a table in the corner, Ezra went to get them both drinks before sitting down close to Aria.

"I wasn't trying to hide you from Jackie you know." Ezra said staring into Aria's eyes. He needed to know she believed him.

"I know you weren't. So what happened with you two?"

"She's always been a peripheral part of our friendship group, she pursued me for ages until I caved. We dated for about a year until about 6 months before I met you. She wanted me to marry her but I never loved her. Turns out she had been cheating on me anyway for the whole time. Looking back I know now I was not myself the whole time."

"Was marrying me a rebound?"

"Not at all, marrying you was pure insanity", Ezra laughed, causing Aria to bump her shoulder into him.

Ezra angled himself to face Aria, "You are not a rebound, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You are the only person I have ever said I love you to, and I am so happy I met you. I know things are rough right now, but look at what we have to look forward to. I love you."

A few tears fell from Aria's eyes as she took in what Ezra's had said, Ezra's hand softly wiped them away out of habit. Aria leaned in to kiss him, whispering that she loved him too. They sat engrossed in each other's company until it was time to move next door.

Ezra introduced Aria to everyone he knew at the wedding, they welcomed her and seemed pleased to see Ezra so happy. Aria responded to questions about what she did with vague answers about studying, with Ezra stepping in when he knew she was uncomfortable.

Ezra left Aria with Hardy while he went to the bathroom only once Hardy promised not to abandon her.

"What did you do to my best friend?" Hardy asked Aria.

"Nothing, what do you mean?" Aria laughed.

"Doesn't matter he's just sickeningly happy with you. He's changed. It's a good thing, honestly. He spent a lot of time being the tortured writer before he met you."

"Thank you for not judging us and letting us figure this out ourselves. I know it must be hard to watch him put himself at risk like he is and not want to keep on at him until he sees sense. I appreciate what you are doing for us."

"I like you Aria, you are so different to the other girls Ezra ends up with. I guess you two just work. I think I can see even better than you both can what is happening with you two. I trust you not to ruin his career, but just promise me to be careful, you realise that after this _romantic_ weekend you have to go back to the way things were, just don't forget that ok?"

Aria nodded, knowing that the bubble would burst after the weekend and they would be back confined to Ezra's apartment again. If it meant being with Ezra, she'd accept that any day though.

Ezra exited the bathroom and scanned the room for Aria and Hardy, smiling once he laid eyes on them. He was so proud to have her with him today. As he watched he failed to notice Jackie approach.

"Ezra, I'm glad to bump into you alone." Jackie said smiling sweetly at him and reaching out to stroke his arm.

Taking a step back from her, Ezra glanced uneasily towards Aria. "Jackie, I am glad you are well but in all honesty I have nothing to say to you anymore and I really want to get back to Aria."

"Ah yes Aria, she looks very young Ezra. I'm worried about you. Away from home and having to find comfort in what company you can, you'll be back to being your old self in New York soon enough, I can help you." Jackie offered, trying to move closer again to Ezra.

"Aria is not comfort. I love her. You are going to have to start believing that. I never once said I loved you while we were together, I'm sorry that you think we worked but obviously we didn't seeing as you were seeking _comfort_ elsewhere the whole time too. So don't come crawling to me now you have no one left. I have someone who means the world to me and I will not let you jeopardise that at all." Ezra stated before turning to walk back to Aria.

"Oh, one other thing.. you were probably wise not to take Hardy's bet about me marrying Aria, you'd have lost already." Ezra smiled leaving Jackie confused.

Jackie could only watch on as Ezra walked up to Aria and slip his arm around her waist and whisper something in her ear that caused her to grin and kiss him.

Hardy left Aria and Ezra talking with the promise of meeting them in the bar later for drinks with Aria's friends. Aria had pulled out her phone to text Hanna and Spencer to tell them to come and meet them.

Ezra took both of Aria's hands in his, "So, I believe I owe you something from our wedding day?"

Aria looked at him confused.

"Will you have this dance with me?"

Aria beamed a smile at him and nodded, before pressing herself closer to him and beginning to sway along to the music with him.


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter, but hopefully you will agree that it needed to be a chapter of its own. **

**There's some good guessers out there - or I'm predictable... **

**Happy Sunday! Bye for now :0)**

Aria waved as she saw Spencer and Hanna weave their way through the crowd to the table where she sat with Ezra and Hardy. Many of the guests from the wedding had continued their evening in the bar next door.

"Hi girls, you remember Hardy I hope." Aria said as Hardy pulled chairs up for the girls to sit with them.

Spencer took Hardy's offered hand to shake it. "You snore"

Hardy smirked at her comment, "well you talk in your sleep."

"I do not." Spencer retorted embarrassed.

"Damn, I didn't realise you were awake and moaning my name or I might have acted on it. Perhaps it happens when you drink… so shall I get you a wine or a cocktail?" Hardy joked.

The others watched bemused at the interaction between Spencer and Hardy. Hardy disappeared to the bar as Spencer and Hanna took their seats.

"What was that?" Aria quizzed Spencer.

"What? Nothing.. He made that up.. you know the talking in my sleep thing." Spencer stammered.

"Uh-huh.. Spence you know that both Aria and I have slept in the same room as you, and we both know you talk in your sleep right?" Hanna said trying not to laugh.

"Right.. well he doesn't need to know that ok.." Spencer said looking directly at Ezra.

Ezra held his hands up to indicate he was not going to say anything, but let out a chuckle at the same time.

Hardy returned to the table with a tray of drinks, choosing the seat next to Spencer to sit down in. Spencer rolled her eyes as she saw Aria and Hanna raise their eyebrows at her.

Hardy kept the drinks flowing and the group spent their evening laughing and chatting easily before all heading back to Ezra's apartment.

Ezra felt Aria start dropping off to sleep against him as they sat on the couches with the others.

"I'm going to take her to bed." Ezra announced. "you guys carry on."

Aria sighed and smiled as she felt Ezra pick her up to carry her, she lightly began kissing Ezra's neck forgetting the others were still there.

"Remember to close the door, I think I am scarred for life after last time." Hardy joked.

"I will be locking it don't worry." Ezra responded with a smile.

Ezra placed Aria gently on the bed, she stopped him from standing back up by locking her legs around his waist. He rested himself lightly on top of her.

"I thought you were sleepy?" He smiled down at her.

"I seem to be much more awake suddenly."

"Oh I think I can wake you up a little bit more." Ezra responded lowering his lips to hers and linking his hands in hers above her head.

Aria and Ezra lay facing each other.

"I really enjoyed today." Aria said quietly.

"Me too, thank you for everything you did to get here and come with me." Ezra said before placing a kiss lightly on her nose. It was their little habit.

"It was a nice wedding, I'd like something like that I think." Aria said absently.

"I'm sorry you didn't get that." Ezra responded.

"Hey, that's not what I meant at all." Aria said placing her hand on Ezra's cheek.

A silence lingered with neither knowing how to say what they were thinking. Ezra suddenly turned over to stretch across to his jacket that hung on a chair near the bed. He pulled the envelope out of the pocket and turned back to face Aria, placing it on the bed between them.

Ezra took a big intake of breath before speaking. "Can we just say exactly what we think about our marriage and these papers in the next few minutes and not judge each other on what is said? It sounds kind of stupid now I have said it out loud as once things are said they can't be taken back but.. I think I want to say what I am thinking."

Aria's heart was thumping in her chest, she was sure Ezra would be able to hear it.

"Ok, but we write it down and then swap, that way we both write our thoughts without the influence of having heard what the other person has said. It'll be fairer. Deal?"

"Deal" Ezra smiled back, "I'm going to have to go get pens from my desk."

Aria sat up as Ezra pulled his boxers on and slipped out of the room, she could hear the girls whistle as he entered the lounge, smiling to herself knowing Ezra would be embarrassed, he had probably forgotten they were here.

"Dude, are you two seriously writing in there? You get that it's a bedroom and we can't hear you in here?" Hardy joked.

Ezra didn't know what to say, he felt a bit like a rabbit in the headlights as he grabbed pens and paper from his desk in the lounge.

"We just needed.. I mean.. it doesn't matter..night guys." Ezra stammered before hurrying back in.

Hardy suddenly remembered the annulment papers and assumed that was why Ezra had needed a pen.

"That was weird, what was that about?" Spencer asked Hardy.

"Uh no idea, Ezra's such a dork at times. They're probably writing each other poetry." Hardy tried to joke.

Ezra shut the door to the bedroom and climbed back into bed, resting against the headboard next to Aria.

"You're overdressed, it has to be completely even conditions." Aria said as he passed her a pen and pad of paper.

Ezra grinned and reached down to remove his boxers again, waving them in the air to show Aria they were off before throwing them across the room.

"That's much better, but stay over there or I am going to get distracted if you touch me."

Ezra laughed at her. "Ok, I'm nervous now. Just write what we think about the marriage and the annulment papers and then we'll swap. "

"Are you going to be grading me?" Aria asked causing them both to laugh.

The room fell into silence as they both sat there writing their thoughts out. Neither was sure whether it was such a good idea to be exposing their thoughts like this but then they figured they were bound to say it to one another at some point anyway.

Ezra finished his first, folding his paper over and rubbing his hand across his face. He could see Aria chewing her pen, reading what she had written next to him. He loved watching her concentrate, he had to avoid staring at her during class while she was working.

Folding her paper over Aria held it in her hands, which were shaking slightly and offered it to Ezra, passing his paper across to her in return. They both stared down at the paper.

"So whatever is said, I love you and I will feel the same as I do now once I have read this." Ezra said turning to look at Aria.

Aria smiled. "Agreed, I'm going no where. I love you. No matter what."

They both opened the pieces of paper in front of them.

_Aria, _

_I love you. I will love you whether you are my girlfriend or my wife. I know now that I was the one who asked you to marry me when we were in Vegas and seeing as we are being honest, I would ask you again now without hesitation. I don't want to sign the papers, I will of course if you want to, it just feels wrong to sign something saying I don't want to be linked to you when every part of me wants to be. I will fight for us when the time comes and I will spend every day trying to make you happy. _

_Yours forever_

_Ezra_

Aria wiped a tear away as she finished the letter, smiling at what Ezra had written.

_Ezra, _

_I don't want to sign the papers. At first being married scared me, but now the thought of not having you in my life scares me even more. I know we will make this work. I wouldn't change a thing about our marriage, I would say yes to you again. I only wish I could tell everyone and wear your ring, but I know that this has only made us stronger and ready to face the fight, together. _

_I want to be your wife, forever, always_

_Aria Fitz xoxo_

Ezra felt tears threatening at the implication of Aria's words, they were in this, together. Turning his head to look at Aria, he could see she was crying. Shuffling closer to her, he wrapped his arm around her to pull her into him.

Picking the envelope up in his other hand, he held it towards Aria. "Shall we?"

Aria nodded, before gripping the other side and pulling to rip the papers in two. Throwing them across the room before they attached their lips to each other.

Ezra reached across to find the clasp of Aria's necklace, undoing it and removing the ring and gently placing it on her finger before kissing her hand and rolling on top of her. They both grinned at each other.

"My partner in crazy, I love you." Ezra said quietly.


	17. Chapter 17

**Sorry for the delay - I was hit with a serious case of indecisiveness on how things were going to pan out for the rest of the story..I ended up changing mind completely for this chapter.. hopefully I am forgiven as it ended up being a long one.**

**I re-read the whole story in the week to check I was still being consistent and it really baffled me that it was something I had written.. It feels like someone else wrote it as I had no idea how I came up with some of it.**

**Anyway.. I hope your day has been as good as mine - beautiful day in Sydney.**

**Thank you for all your kind words, I think the last chapter was the best received so far! I miss old school Ezria (and Ian Harding generally).. they'll find a way to get back together - blatantly when Ezra finds out it is not his son and he should have got that paternity test - yes I am still on about that.. no paternity test in this story though!**

Ezra lay staring at the ceiling, running his fingers through Aria's hair as she cuddled into his side, his other hand linked with hers on his chest, they were in no rush to get up and start the day.

"Do you think anyone would notice if we didn't go back?" Aria said aloud.

"I think even that might be just a little bit too crazy for us to pull off"

"I just wish we didn't have to go back to the lies and sneaking around anymore. I just want for us to be able to be ourselves, be together."

"I know hun, but think about it, this is your final term before you are free. I probably have maybe six, seven, lessons with you at most before the exams. We are so close. I just don't think we jeopardise your exams by not knowing how your parents are going to react."

"Don't remind me. Maybe we just don't say anything. Ever."

"Well that might prove difficult seeing as I was kind of hoping my wife might consider living with me here."

Aria leant up and turned to face Ezra smiling.

"Are you asking me to move in with you?"

"Only if you want to. I know we are doing everything backwards, but I suppose selfishly once you are here in New York I don't want to be away from you. I don't want to rush you into it though if you are not ready." Ezra reasoned.

Aria grinned before lifting her leg over Ezra to allow herself to rest on top of him. Leaning down she began kissing his neck, slowly working her way to his ear. She could feel Ezra's heart pounding.

"Of course I'll move in with you" Aria whispered huskily.

Hearing these words were the green light for Ezra to attach his lips to Aria's and delay their getting up even more.

Aria played with the ring on her finger as she sat watching Ezra getting dressed after they had showered.

"I promise you the next time we put that ring on your finger it is never leaving it again" Ezra said breaking Aria's thoughts.

Reluctantly Aria pulled the ring to remove it from her finger before handing it to Ezra to attach it her necklace.

"It hurts me when you take it off too." Ezra said with a sad smile before holding his hand out for Aria to take. "Come on, let's go see if the others are alive. We'll grab breakfast with them, then I'll take you downtown for our second date."

Entering the lounge Aria saw Hanna lying on one couch, while Spencer lay with her head on Hardy's lap on the other. They were all clearly suffering from their late night.

"Finally, we thought you guys were never getting up. I didn't have the energy to come and knock on the door." Hanna whined. "We were waiting for you to go get some food."

"And coffee, lots and lots of coffee." Spencer replied.

Ezra raised an eyebrow at Hardy to try and deduce if anything had happened between him and Spencer. Hardy grinned back, causing Ezra to shake his head.

"Was that you saying you were paying for us Hardy?" Ezra joked.

"I will pay for everyone in the café. I'm too hungry and tired to care right now. Let's get out of here." Hardy replied before helping Spencer to her feet, causing the other three to look at each other and smirk.

The group spent the rest of the morning holed up in a café talking and laughing before Ezra left with Aria to head downtown and just enjoy their time together. They walked through Central Park hand in hand, enjoying the sunny day, stopping to rest on a bench and watch the world pass them by, no one knew their story and no one cared. It was the small things they just wanted to do in New York that they couldn't Rosewood. Going out to dinner on their last evening was again no grand gesture, the simple act of going out in jeans to a local restaurant was all they both needed.

Aria hugged Ezra tight as they said goodbye the airport. The girls had left them alone, this was their last chance to be in public for a while, and knowing that the end of the next term was going to force them both to come clean to Aria's family.

"Thank you for coming, I loved having you with me. We'll be back here together before you know it, ok?" Ezra said trying to cheer Aria up as a few tears started trickling down her cheek. "Anyway it's not like you are not going to see me. I'll be back in a couple of days."

"I know, it's just not the same. We've made this life changing decision and no one knows."

"We know, that's what matters. You and me." Ezra pulled the ring out of her top. "And, you have this little connection to me with you all the time. I love you."

"What the hell.. Aria what's going on?" Spencer demanded in a shaky voice causing Ezra and Aria to jump apart.

"Nothing, we were just saying goodbye, don't sneak up on people like that." Aria said trying to remain calm, swiftly moving her hand to cover her necklace.

"What's in your hand Aria?" Hanna asked uneasily.

"It's just my necklace" Aria removed her hand to show just the A, leaving the ring in her palm.

Ezra edged closer to Aria, placing his hand on her back, realising that their fight was about to begin.

"Nice try, drop the necklace Aria." Spencer said, staring at Aria with her arms crossed.

Aria looked at Ezra unsure what she could do. He briefly closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before locking eyes with Aria and nodding slightly.

The girls' hands shot to cover their mouths as they saw the ring on the end of the chain.

"Are you guys engaged?" Hanna asked.

"You cannot be serious Aria, what are you thinking?" Spencer added clearly unimpressed at what she saw.

Ezra's reached for Aria's hand and gripped it tightly.

"We ummm." Aria felt sick, but she knew she needed to say the words and be proud of saying them, the girls finding out was her practice run before her parents. "We're already married."

"What!" Both girls shrieked at once.

"That's impossible, how can you already be married? Wait, was that your wedding the other day?" Hanna said frowning.

Spencer turned to look at Hanna and held her hands up completely baffled as to how Hanna's mind worked at times. Shaking her head she turned back to Aria and Ezra.

"One of you needs to start talking."

"Please don't be angry at Aria. This is not how we wanted to tell you." Ezra responded calmly.

"No it seems you both preferred to lie, we're meant to be your best friends Aria. You flat out lied to my face saying being with Ezra was not worth the risk while all the time you are sneaking off to screw him, and might I remind you he is still your teacher despite this revelation. Then you then lied to me about why you were in New York and now you are saying you are married to him. What the hell are you thinking Aria? You never lied to us before you met him."

Tears started to stream from Aria's eyes as she saw the disappointment in Spencer's eyes.

"It just happened Spence, we didn't plan any of this." Aria pleaded.

"You planned the lies Aria." Spencer shot back.

"We couldn't exactly go advertising the fact that we were married could we. Obviously we had to decide between us what we wanted to do, and that was something we had to do on our own, that was all that mattered."

"Oh so the opinion of your friends means nothing to you."

"No, that's not what I meant and you know it. Ezra and I are the ones in this marriage, only we could decide if we wanted to stay in it. We are 100% in this together. When we spoke outside Ezra's I said to you that I needed you to like me and that I did not expect you to accept Ezra, I meant that, but you've had a chance to see us together this weekend, you can see I am happy, we make each other happy."

"I could have walked away, I haven't. I am willing to risk everything I have for Aria. I get that you are angry, but we did what was best for Aria, I want her to finish high school without being the talk of the town and ruining everything she has worked for." Ezra added.

"Oh and you think this coming out at the end of term means it's not going to cause people to talk? Why didn't you quit your job, save the controversy in the first place?" Spencer fired back at Ezra.

Ezra sighed, he knew what Spencer was saying was right. "I tried Spencer, getting replacement teachers at this stage in a school year is pretty hard. I made a commitment to the school and I am not the kind of person who goes back on their word. In anything."

A heavy silence descended amongst the group.

"Ok, am I missing something because I still don't get when you got married?" Hanna said.

"Seriously Hanna?" Spencer responded frustrated.

Hanna shook her head completely confused.

"We got married the night we met in Vegas. I realised on the plane home that I was wearing a wedding ring and found photos on my phone. Ezra also woke up with a ring on his finger and hefty charge on his bank statements. We were going to get an annulment, Hardy even drew the papers up for us, but we decided the other night we couldn't do it. We want to make this work."

"Wait you said it was a decision you made yourselves and now you say Hardy has known all along." Spencer questioned.

"We needed a lawyer, and surely you of all people would know that the lawyer in Rosewood is none other than your mother! Not really a feasible option for us now was it?"

The girls stared at each other, the tension still high. Ezra leant down and kissed the top of Aria's head as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

Hanna decided to speak up, "look the way I see it is Aria had to lie to us, I get that Spence and maybe you will come to realise that in time too. This isn't a game Spencer, people's lives are at risk, ok not in a death sense.. or actually maybe in your case Fitzy as Mr Montgomery is going to kill you, but anyway..where was I.. it's just I get why we weren't told. Do I like it? No, but I can move past it. Look at how happy Aria is, and Ezra you are whipped so bad. I can actually see how well they work together. I actually believe they will make this work."

"Thank you Han, that means the world to me, to us." Aria replied allowing herself to smile.

Spencer merely rolled her eyes, the stubbornness in her refused to consider Hanna's point of view.

An announcement over the tannoy indicated that the girls' flight was ready to board.

"Spence, let's go find our seats, Aria can follow us in a minute ok?." Hanna offered, knowing Aria and Ezra would need some time alone after what just happened.

Spencer swallowed her pride and met Ezra's eyes "thank you for letting me stay this weekend." As hard as it was to admit, and she wasn't feeling up to it now, she had enjoyed her weekend and had begun to forget that Ezra was their teacher. She had just seen him as Aria's boyfriend. She turned and started heading towards the gate.

"Fitzy, I had a great time, thanks for having me. I rummaged through all your drawers by the way, you really are boring.. there was nothing juicy there at all. I left you a little something as a gift though." Hanna said making Ezra laugh.

"I cleaned before you came Hanna, do you really think I wouldn't know what you'd get up to?"

"Cunning.. you are smarter than you look." Hanna winked before turning to walk away.

"Hang on, what kind of stuff did you hide?" Aria asked wrapping her arms around Ezra's waist.

"Absolutely nothing, I have nothing to hide from you at all. The rest of the world maybe." Ezra brushed Aria's hair from her face and ran his thumbs across her face to dry her damp cheeks. "Are you ok?" He asked softly.

"Not so much, but this was meant to be the easier part right?" Spencer has nothing on my parents or yours surely, we haven't even thought about them yet."

"My parents are not what is important right now, it will completely different to our situation with your parents. Let's just take this one battle at a time. You need to mend your relationship with Spencer, she doesn't need to like me. That is what is important right now. Although I am pretty likeable." Ezra smiled, placing a light kiss on Aria's lips.

"You really are very very likeable." Aria whispered as she pressed her lips to his.

"I hate that you have to go and deal with this on your own" Ezra said sadly.

"It's ok, this part you can't help me fix. I've known her all my life, we'll come through this. I'm going to have to tell Emily though, it's not fair if she doesn't know too. You just have to be on the end of the phone and hurry back for me. Deal?"

"Deal, I love you, _Mrs. Fitz_." Ezra smiled.

"I love you too. I can't call you _Mr. Fitz_ right now, it just feels weird." Aria laughed.

Ezra laughed too, knowing exactly what Aria meant. "I'll miss you, stay strong ok, it's just a couple of days and I will be back in town."

Aria nodded, tears threatening to fall again. Giving Ezra a last hug and kiss before she turned to leave. It was strange how even just a couple of days apart were so hard for her to handle.

Ezra walked out of the airport miserable, hating watching Aria leave and not being able to support her. Joining the queue for a cab he headed back to the city and his apartment.

A small flat parcel lay on Ezra's kitchen worktop as he entered the now silent apartment, he had enjoyed having other people there and the loneliness hit him hard.

Ripping the paper, Ezra smiled as he saw a framed photo of him and Aria that Hanna must have taken when they had been drinking the other night. The photo showed them staring into each other's eyes, both grinning, nothing else around them mattered. Walking into the bedroom, Ezra placed the photo on his bedside table, before lying down on the bed, his hand rubbing his forehead to relieve some tension. He pulled his phone from his pocket to call Hardy.

"Hey dude, what's up? Has Aria left?" Hardy asked as he answered.

"Yeah, I just got back from the airport. Things got messy."

"How? What do you mean?" Hardy asked confused.

"The girls found out about us being married, Spencer got shitty and Hanna, well Hanna is Hanna. So now Aria is heading back and having to deal with it on her own."

"Wait, how did they find out about you getting married? And why does it matter if you have signed those papers, the fat lady is about to sing is she not?

"Well, we didn't sign the papers, we ripped them up the other night. We both wanted this to work out. Aria has her wedding ring on a necklace and the girls saw it."

"Dude, you are screwed. The girls are pushovers compared to what is going to happen with her parents. As for Spencer, well I'd be more than happy to try sweeten her up a bit."

Ezra laughed. "Did you seriously go there with one of Aria's friends? I didn't get chance to talk to you yesterday. You do recall the issue with them being in high school right?"

"Uhh no, I have no issue with them being in high school because I, my friend, am not their teacher unlike your good self. I do have many things to teach now that I think about it.. but I am free of guilt and a jail sentence right now."

"You are unbelievable. Why are we friends again?" Ezra laughed.

"Because you know I am the only person who will support you in this mess you call love. And because you know I mean it when I tell you to go and pack your stuff, get a flight back to Rosewood and just be there for Aria. You're only going to be completely miserable here until you get back there. We'll have plenty of time to catch up when you move back here, with your wife in tow."

"Thanks man, you're right. I don't know why I am staying here. Thanks for sorting the paperwork too, it helped us in the end, forced us to be honest with each other. You'd better line some drinks up for when I get back as it's going to be a rough battle, that much I do know."

"You'll come through it, it'll work out. Just remember what I said last time. Contain it to those seriously shabby four walls for a few more weeks, you've already slipped and let the girls find out, let it be a lesson to you about what can happen. Don't let the warm and fuzzies of New York make you more relaxed back there. Do not let this end badly Ezra."

"I know I won't. I'll keep you updated." Ezra responded before rolling off the bed and beginning to organise himself to head back to Rosewood.

Hanna sat between Aria and Spencer on the flight back. The silence between them deafening. Hanna reached down and squeezed Aria's hand and smiled at her. Aria knew that Hanna would stand by her regardless.

Barely a word was said for the duration of the flight, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

As the girls stood waiting for their bags, Spencer turned to Aria, struggling to decide what to say.

"I don't hate you Aria, I'm disappointed, I just need some space ok, I just want what is best for you and I guess I need to adjust to the fact that you see that as spending your life with Ezra. I won't say anything to anyone, you know I never would. Just be careful ok."

"Thanks Spence, I understand. I know it's a lot to take in, but I need you. Things are going to get tough and I want to be able to come to you to talk." Aria responded.

"And you will be able to, just let me process everything from the weekend and we'll be fine ok."

Aria nodded before grabbing her back and making her way to the exit with the girls to find Ella's car parked waiting for them. Taking a deep breath before mentally preparing herself for the web of deception she had to re-build.


	18. Chapter 18

**Hello.. Bit late posting this - not overly happy with it and still being struck with indecisiveness.. Decision making is not my strong point. **

**I hope you enjoy my work though.. all the best to everyone who reads this :0)**

Aria hauled her bag up to her bedroom sitting on the bed and letting out a big sigh. She just wanted a hug from Ezra. She dialled his number and frowned as it went straight to voicemail.

Ella stood in the doorway, watching Aria tap a message into her phone.

"Have you had lunch baby girl?"

"Yeah I ate with Ezra earlier" Aria responded without realising what she had said.

"Ezra? Ezra as in Ezra Fitz?" Ella asked confused.

Aria felt like the colour drained from her face. "No, not Mr Fitz, one of Spencer's sister's friends. Why would I have lunch with Mr Fitz?" Aria laughed nervously.

"True, though there's many single and married ladies in this town who would love a chance to have lunch with him that's for sure. He is one very good looking man." Ella laughed.

"Mom! Seriously can you not talk about him like that." Aria shrieked, mortified at her mother thinking about Ezra in that way.

"Ok, ok, I was just saying what everyone is thinking. Anyway, come on, let's go out for coffee, catch up. You can tell me about New York."

Aria gave her mother a forced smile and reluctantly followed her.

"So how was your trip? You all seemed pretty quiet in the car home, you haven't all fallen out have you?" Ella asked as she took a sip of her coffee.

"No of course not, we're just tired. We walked around a lot and were up pretty late last night talking."

"So did you visit any campuses or was it all shopping?"

"I wandered around Columbia, that's definitely where I want to be and live." Aria said being honest whilst missing out the key information of why and who she would be living with.

"I'm sure you'll achieve whatever you set your heart on honey. I'm so proud of you and who you have turned into."

Aria forced a smile, knowing the depth of her lies would certainly change her mother's opinion of her. The two sat in silence before Aria spoke up.

"Mom, how old were you when you met dad?"

"I had just turned 19, your father was 24 I think. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, I was just thinking that's all. And how soon before you knew he was the one for you?"

"Gosh, I don't know. I can't say it was instant like some people say it is for them. But, I guess I knew deep down early on. We got married as soon as I finished uni, then you came along about a year later. We have our moments but we get through everything together. I suppose my parents thought I had settled too young and maybe I did but I have you and your brother so I would never change that. Are you seeing someone older Aria? Is this what all these questions are about?" Ella asked uneasily.

"What? No, of course not. I'm not seeing anyone." Aria responded as innocently as she could manage. She had brought the conversation up to try and test the waters and establish where her mother stood. Little did Ella know that her own answers would be used as a defence by Aria when it came to her own relationship with Ezra.

Aria prodded her cake, lost in her own thoughts.

"Just make sure he treats you well, never accept anything less." Ella advised.

Aria smiled and mumbled "he does" to herself, not intending Ella to notice or hear.

Ella smirked as she realised what Aria had whispered, she was sure she was seeing someone, it intrigued her that she was being so secretive about it.

"Follow your dreams Aria, love will still find you." Ella added, wanting to make sure Aria was not going to jeopardise her studies for a boy.

"Thanks mom, you know I intend to."

Aria's phone flashed as a text delivered. Seeing the _E_ on the screen, she shielded the phone from her mother.

_Let yourself into my apartment in half an hour, there is a surprise in there for you. Love you xoxo_

Aria grinned, wondering what Ezra was up to. She quickly typed her response.

_I'm intrigued. Can't wait. Miss you already xoxo_

"Mom, can I go to Hanna's? She has some of my stuff from New York. We'll probably study and watch movies for the night."

"Sure I'll drop you round on my way home."

"Oh, it's ok, I can walk."

"Don't be silly, it's on the way."

Aria quickly grabbed her phone again to text Hanna, silently praying she was home.

_Need a favour, my mom is dropping me to yours now "to study". Can you drop me at Ezra's?_

As Aria and Ella exited the café she received Hanna's response.

_Sure, but why are you going round there?_

_Tell you when I get there. Thanks hun, you're the best x_

Aria and Hanna sat giving Ella enough time to get home before heading out to Hanna's car.

"So, he said there's a surprise in the apartment, maybe it's exam paper answers."

Aria laughed, "I really don't think it will be that."

"Do you want me to wait for you?"

"No, it's fine, I'll call him while I am there, take advantage of the privacy. I might be a while."

"Why? What kind of call are you intending to have with him?" Hanna laughed as she saw Aria turn red.

"Not that kind of call, well not intentionally anyway" Aria winked at Hanna before getting out of the car. "Thank you for this, you are amazing, never forget that."

"Well in case I ever do, feel free to keep telling me."

Aria waved as Hanna pulled off, quickly glancing around her to check no one was watching before dashing up the front steps and entering the building code, rummaging in her bag for her keys as she approached apartment 3B.

Aria frowned as she heard music coming from inside the apartment. Shakily she turned the key and peered round the door frame, her face lighting up like a child at Christmas at the sight of Ezra coming towards her. Dropping her bag she rushed into his arms, before bursting into tears.

"Hey, it's ok, I'm here for you." Ezra said as he hugged Aria tight to him, stroking her hair and trying to calm her down. "I couldn't let you handle everything on your own. We have to face this together."

Ezra reached down and picked Aria up, carrying her across to the couch and sitting her on his lap.

Aria sniffled as the rested her head tight against Ezra's chest.

"Thank you for coming back. You didn't have to."

"I did have to, I wanted to, and I will always be there ok? What happened on the way home, did Spencer say anything else to you?"

"We barely spoke on the plane home, she said she just needed space to readjust to the idea of us being married. I think we'll be ok. I just wish they hadn't found out that way, I just wanted to deal with it all once the exams are over. I'm meeting Emily in the morning at hers, she got back from swim camp today, I'm not too worried about her reaction, it was always Spencer who was going to have the stronger opinions on us, it's just her nature."

"I know it's not ideal but this was never going to be smooth sailing. Your friends were probably the least of my worries, ok I agree Spencer was a worry, that girl is going to make one hell of a lawyer. Your parents and the school finding out are what we have to concentrate on avoiding until the time is right."

"I nearly slipped up earlier, I said your name to my mom, I covered by saying I meant Ezra one of Melissa's friends. I was just distracted and well, thinking of you, I just forgot."

"We'll get back into our routine here and time is going to fly. Now let's get you changed into something comfier, which usually means my clothes as you seem to always choose them over yours, I am going to order us takeout and we are going to watch whatever movies you want."

Aria smiled and nodded before placing a soft kiss on Ezra's lips.

They spent their evening cuddled on the couch watching movies, back to hiding from the world once again.

Ezra lay under the covers with his hands behind his head as he watched Aria get dressed to go and meet Emily.

"What's your plans today?" Aria asked as she jumped up and down to pull her skinny jeans up.

Ezra smiled at the sight. "I'll go for a run in a bit, then work on lesson plans I suspect, are you going to come back later?"

"Yeah, I'll go grab some of my books from home afterwards and we can both work here. I need to catch up on some study, especially now I have a serious incentive to get the grades I need for Columbia."

"You'll be fine, we'll deal with whatever grades you get. I go where you go."

Aria crawled up the bed to hover over Ezra. "You are the perfect husband, have I told you that?"

Ezra grinned, "You are the perfect wife..and you are all mine." Ezra swiftly grabbed Aria and flipped her over so that he was now resting on top of her, placing kisses all over her neck and tickling her sides. Aria giggled uncontrollably as Ezra continued his assault.

Ezra lifted Aria's hands above her head, entwining his fingers in hers as he looked down at her flushed cheeks.

"Hmm all mine" Ezra whispered as he started a heated kiss with Aria.

Breaking apart for air, Ezra realised Aria would need to leave soon. Placing a light kiss on her nose, he smiled as he rubbed his nose against hers.

"I'll be thinking of you, call me if you need me ok? Do you want me to call you a cab, I'd give you a lift but that might not be wise?"

"No, it's fine, it's not far to walk, it will give me a chance to think about how to tell her."

"I wish we could do this part together."

"I know, I thought about that too but the less places we are seen together the better, and I didn't want to tell her to come here, it's hard enough me sneaking in here without multiple girls coming in your door."

"Good point. Call me when you're done. Promise?"

"Promise."

Aria walked through Rosewood, grabbing a coffee on her way to Emily's trying to decide the best way to tell her. Emily's nature was a lot calmer than either Hanna or Spencer, she was the rock of the group in some ways.

"Aria, how are you? Come in" Emily smiled as she answered the door.

"Yeah I'm good. How was camp?"

"Really tough, but I feel so much better for getting through it, I really think it helped me."

"How's Paige?"

"She's good, we're doing really well. How was New York? I haven't seen the others yet? Did you get to see Spencer?"

"Umm yeah, she ended up staying with us, Melissa and the family were too much for her to handle I guess."

"Did you go out to bars at night? Am I going to seriously regret not going?" Emily laughed.

"Yeah, we had one big night I guess." Aria didn't know how to bring up what she needed to say.

"Are you sure you're ok? You don't seem yourself."

"Just got a bit on my mind I suppose, which is why I wanted to see you."

"Hey, you can talk to me about anything, you know that."

Aria smiled, Emily really was the calm influence on the group.

"Ok, here goes.." Aria felt her stomach churn as she prepared herself to begin. "So the reason we, well I, went to New York was to spend some time with Ezra."

"Ezra as in _Mr Fitz Ezra, _Aria what's going on?" Emily asked warily.

Aria nodded unable to make eye contact. "Well we've been seeing each other, we're together."

Emily sat in silence, leaving Aria unsure if she should talk or let her digest what she had said.

"Ezra invited me to go to a wedding with him, so Hanna and I stayed at his apartment."

"You _stayed_ at his apartment" Emily repeated, unsure if she was merely stating the same fact or questioning Aria.

"Actually, Spencer ended up staying there too when she wanted to escape her family. Hanna has been covering for me for months, Spencer knew nothing about it, she was, well still is pretty mad at me. I wanted to tell you myself."

Emily's expression hadn't changed throughout Aria talking. She sat holding her mug of tea, watching Aria.

"Help me out here Em, say something, shout at me if you want." Aria said uneasily.

"I'm not going to shout at you Aria, why would I do that? I am worried about what you've said, about what could happen to you both if this comes out."

"I know Em, we both think about it 24/7, which is why we needed some time in New York to just be ourselves, have a normal relationship for a few days, relax a little."

"Ok, but don't you think it was a bit of a risk having three high school girls stay in their English teacher's apartment. That is a recipe for one hell of a jail sentence surely."

"Probably, look I am not saying what we did wasn't crazy and stupid, everything happened not quite as Ezra and I had planned but we had very little choice in the way some of it panned out."

"You will have even less of a choice if people find out, Aria I am just scared about you losing everything."

"We are both scared, but you see there's another reason why we've risked everything to be together. OK here goes..we're married, we got married the night we met in Vegas." Aria blurted out.

"Aria, did you just say you're _married_?" Emily asked, wanting to make sure she had heard her right.

Aria pulled the necklace from her top to show Emily the ring.

"Look out of all of us, you would think I would be the expert in discreet relationships, such is the way of the high school world, but are you seriously telling me that you have been married to Mr Fitz, Ezra, for months now and you sit in his class and play student?"

"I'm not _playing_ student Em, I am actually there to learn. You know this was not planned, we're just trying to get through these last few weeks before we are both free of Rosewood. We obviously talked about getting the marriage annulled, but when it came down to signing the papers neither of us wanted to go through with it."

"I know it wasn't planned Aria, but do you not think that if you were meant to be together then you could have waited until after school had finished. I just think that given Ezra's position he should be well aware of what is right and wrong."

"I know this is going to sound cliché and unbelievable but I don't think we could have stayed away from one another even if we had tried. Believe me I'd be rolling my eyes at anyone who said it too but this just feels so right. Please don't blame Ezra, when we met I was just a girl in the bar, we got married Em, our lives and histories were bound from that day, I know we were drunk but it wasn't something that was ever going to be erased."

"Please just promise me you'll be careful, you should be with someone who makes you happy and if that is Ezra then of course I am going to support you, just like you support me. Please don't take any more risks for your sake and his."

"Thanks Em, I wish I could have told you from the start and there didn't have to be the secrecy but I knew you'd try to understand where I was coming from."

"What are you going to tell your parents?"

Aria sighed, "I have no idea what or how to tell them. Part of me wanted to not say anything, but I think that is a bigger deception than I think I can handle. Plus, Ezra wants me to move in with him when we head to New York, so I have no choice but to come clean. I am absolutely dreading it."

"I have been on the receiving end of parental disappointment believe me, but you know what, you are their child, they might not be able to handle it at first, but that bond will make them want you to be happy and loved. You are just going to have to show them what you guys have and be prepared for the hurt from the fallout. You'll really need Ezra then."

"I know. I just hope he thinks it is all worth it when the dust settles." Aria said sadly.

"Of course he will Aria, if he has come this far and is planning for the future, he is obviously willing to face this with you. You know that."

"Yeah, I suppose I do." Aria smiled softly, playing with the ring between her fingers.

The girls spent the morning continuing to catch up before Aria left to head home and get her books to study at Ezra's. Aria felt a sense of relief that the girls knew and one hurdle had been crossed.

Ezra sipped his coffee and scanned the newspaper headlines as he slowly walked through the halls of the school on the first day back. The rest of the spring break had passed with him working and Aria studying in his apartment and watching movies. He enjoyed every minute he could steal with her. Spotting her with the girls up ahead, he tried to contain the grin that wanted to break out at the sight of Aria.

"Morning girls." Ezra smiled.

"Morning." They all responded. Aria bit her lip as she eyed him and up and down.

"Oh Mr Fitz, I've been looking for you." Mrs Welch said as she approached "The Principal sent me to find you, he needs to talk to you."

"Oh right, umm ok, I'll head that way." Ezra's heart began to race and he felt like he began to sweat heavily.

Aria caught Ezra's eye, both nervous of what the Principal could want.

"Uh, excuse me girls.. I should go,.. umm see what he wants." Ezra said nervously, handing his half drunk coffee to Aria, not wanting to have something visibly shaking in his hands.

"It'll be fine." Aria said quietly as he turned to leave, trying to sound like she believed it to be.


	19. Chapter 19

**Sorry sorry sorry.. once again my weekend plans to knuckle down and finish writing this went out the window when I got free tickets see Aerosmith, Van Halen and Billy Joel and took up all my free time. I'm exhausted! **

**I am pleased I managed to give you a cliff hanger on the last chapter though.. still pulling the final stages into place.. the end is getting close (and secretly it's still not really decided on how it will all pan out yet..but fear not, i will get there..hopefully this weekend)**

**Thank you for the lovely comments. Have a great day.**

Ezra sat on his couch nursing a bottle of beer, his shirt unbuttoned and his tie hanging over the arm of the couch. His head turned to the door as he heard it unlock.

"Hey, I got here as soon as I could." Aria said as she entered the apartment, dumping her bag near the door before sitting next to Ezra on the couch, leaning over to kiss him on the lips. "How are you?"

"Good, I feel really good." Ezra smiled, running his hand through Aria's hair as he spoke.

"Me too." Aria grinned. "I mean not that I didn't think you were a great teacher but I really prefer you in my life in other ways. I was really worried when you got called in this morning, tell me everything that happened."

"Well, apparently your normal teacher was ready to return to work and really wanted to be around for your class' final semester, so I am officially unemployed."

"Hmmm so how are we going to celebrate?"

"I hope we don't celebrate my unemployment too often, but this could not have worked out better." Ezra smiled before leaning across to kiss Aria and begin their celebrating.

Aria's head rested on Ezra's chest listening to his heartbeat, "So what do you think you will do now? Are you going to go back to New York?"

"I don't have to, I can do some writing here, job hunt, that kind of thing and anyway I'd miss you too much. Plus, I had an idea."

"Uh oh, your ideas tend to involve us doing something crazy."

"Well, yes, this might be crazy but it might be the baby step we need. I was thinking we could tell your parents.." Ezra stopped as Aria choked in shock.

"What! Why on earth would you think that was a good idea right now? I'm beginning to think you might be borderline insane."

"Well if you had let me finish.. I was going to say, we could tell your parents you asked me to tutor you for the exams, which means we could actually sit and have a coffee in public, spread some books on the table, look the part.. what do you think?"

Aria grinned, "I think I married a genius, forget what I said about the insanity part. How many subjects do you think they'll legitimately believe you are tutoring me for?"

Ezra laughed. "You do realise I can actually help you study for the exams too though?"

"I know, but where's the fun in that? We get to hang out in public, eat, drink, chat, hold hands.. ok not the holding hands but you know what I mean." Aria said excitedly. "Can we start tomorrow, after school?"

Ezra smiled at Aria's excitement, "Sure, but hun remember we still don't get to be us in front of everyone ok? This is just introducing the idea to others that we can get along outside of school and then we'll figure it out from there."

Aria slipped in the front door spotting her parents in the kitchen.

"Hey honey, how was your day?" Ella asked.

"Fine thanks, I went to Hanna's after school."

"I heard it was Mr. Fitz's last day today. That's a shame he was a good teacher." Ella said with a hint of genuine sadness in her voice.

Aria's heart began to pound, she knew now would be the perfect time to bring up the "tutoring".

"Well, he offered to tutor anyone who wanted extra help for the exams after school, so I thought I might take him up on the offer. Especially as he went to Columbia."

"That's very good of him." Byron added, "Let me know what he is charging and we'll pay for it for you. You definitely need to start focussing on the exams now Aria, you really should come home from school a bit more often instead of going to see your friends."

"Dad, I am studying, my grades are not suffering in any way. You know how much I want to go to New York, I am not going to mess that up now. I promise."

"You should tell Ezra to come here for the tutoring if you like, he can stay for dinner afterwards." Ella offered.

"Oh, well we were meeting in The Grille tomorrow, but I'll mention it to him, I didn't want anything too formal and pressured."

"Ok, but just make sure you mention it."

"I will. I'm going to head upstairs and study." Aria smiled as she raced up the stairs to text Ezra what her parents had said. She finally felt like things were going in their favour. Her parents genuinely liked Ezra, she now needed to figure out how best to use that to their advantage when the time came.

As the last class of the day finished, Aria walked the halls with the other girls.

"Who fancies going to the movies with me?" Hanna asked.

Spencer and Emily agreed.

"What about you Aria? Aren't you going to come too? Come on, we'll choose a chick flick, eat our body weight in popcorn, it'll be fun." Hanna begged.

"Well, actually, I am meeting Ezra at The Grille."

"What!? Are you asking for trouble Aria? It's only been a day since he left, I think it's a little soon to be seen on a date with him." Spencer stated.

"It's not a _date_, well it sort of is in our minds.. but to the outside world, he is tutoring me in English."

"And your parents are aware of this?" Spencer asked.

"Yes, they are fine with it, they want him to come to the house but I think we'll try and avoid that."

"It's not fair that he is going to give you all the answers." Hanna whined.

"You could get him to tutor you Han, but you get that you would then actually have to study?" Aria laughed. "It's not like he writes the exam papers, and anyway it's about us being able to be seen in public, it's a baby step for us, studying is not my only intention."

"No you having eye sex with him across a table in public is what is going to end up happening." Hanna joked.

"Han! That's not what is going to happen." Aria said shaking her head at Hanna's typical bluntness.

"Yeah yeah I know, all sex stays in his apartment, I get it." Hanna laughed as she dodged Aria's arm as she went to playfully shove her.

"I'll see you tomorrow girls, we're done with this conversation now!" Aria laughed before virtually skipping in happiness to her car.

Ezra sat nervously in at a booth in The Grille waiting for Aria to arrive. He had ordered her a coffee and cake, knowing what she would want before realising it was probably not a good idea to appear to be so familiar with Aria's tastes. He glanced around but noted there was no one he recognised. He smiled as he saw Aria approaching the café, his heart always pounded at the sight of her. They both awkwardly resisted the urge to hug one another as Aria slid into the booth opposite Ezra and grinned, placing her books on the table between them.

"Hey.. so we're doing this." Aria said quietly.

"We are out here doing this..and it feels good." Ezra smiled back.

Whilst they saw each other every day, they made sure to head out as often as seemed realistic to the café with Aria's books, spending their time chatting and laughing. No one seemed to think anything strange about their meetings, they made sure never to touch each other until they were safely back in Ezra's apartment.

A sunny afternoon studying at a picnic table in a deserted park was however, about to be their undoing.


	20. Chapter 20

**Hello.. So some mixed reviews I feel on the last chapter, I wasn't that happy with it myself.. I will admit I know nothing about the American school system so you'll have to forgive some of factual inaccuracies on the timings I have set out - it obviously differs from the British system on how the semesters/uni admissions pan out.. hopefully I can be forgiven for creative license. I struggled to connect that well with the last chapter.**

**I'll put the rest of my comments at the end as I do not want to spoil any of the plot before you have read it.. I hope you enjoy this chapter.. **

Aria threw her head back in laughter as Ezra joked around, they had been talking about Tolkien before he had claimed to be able to do the voice of Ian McKellan as Gandalf.

"Come on, it's a good impression." Ezra pleaded with a smile.

"It was, it's just a very odd choice of impersonation for you to learn. I just know that every time I think about Tolkien now that is all I am going remember, but thank you for the entertainment."

Ezra lightly bumped his shoulder into Aria and laughed; he loved spending time with her, they just connected in so many ways.

"You know the park is empty right now.." Aria said as she quickly scanned her eyes around the area from their spot next to each other at a picnic bench.

"Oh really? And, why would you need me to know that?" Ezra smirked back after a quick glance himself to confirm she was right.

Aria leaned in close to his lips, "Because I really want to kiss you, here, now."

Ezra's eyes darkened with lust, Aria knew how to tease him. He cracked as soon as Aria parted her lips slightly, closing the gap he moaned as he felt their tongues collide. They broke apart, aware that they couldn't stay as they were, glancing around again to check there was still no one around, they grinned before risking another heated kiss.

"Let's get out of here." Ezra managed to say between kisses. "I need you, now."

Aria nodded, grabbing her books as quickly as she could. The pair walked close together, purposefully brushing against each other as they left the park grinning, they couldn't walk to Ezra's apartment fast enough.

Ezra entered the building code, hearing the front door unlock before wrapping his arms around Aria and kissing her, backing her into the building, their laughter echoing in the hallways as they fumbled to find their way to his front door.

Ella stood staring up at a previously unknown apartment block. Unable to move as she processed everything she had just witnessed. Disbelief and indecision plagued her mind as she tried to decide what she was supposed to do. Her hands shaking as she pulled out her mobile, opening up a new text message she tapped in Aria's name.

_Hey honey, are you home? Just checking if you will be back for dinner, going shopping now._

Her heart pounded as she pressed send. Knowing she was setting Aria up to confirm she was lying to her. Standing for what felt like forever as she waited for Aria to respond, not wanting to think what she would be doing at that moment in time, about why her high school daughter would not be paying attention to her phone.

Ella had walked around the perimeter of the park enjoying the sun on her way to the store, usually she would have driven but the chance of some exercise and fresh air had made her change her route to the store. She'd initially smiled as she saw Aria laugh at something Ezra had said to her, she had noticed Aria glance around the park, Ella herself was outside the park behind the iron fencing, out of Aria's sight.

The colour drained from Ella's face as realised what was about to happen, her daughter and Ezra, _Mr. Fitz._ Even she could tell from the way they were acting that this was not something that had just happened, they had done this before. She knew they were too at ease with each other to have caught them kissing for the first time ever. She had forced herself to follow the pair as they hurried their way out of the park, watching her daughter disappear happily into the apartment block with the man they'd invited into their home, the man Ella had called a colleague.

_Hey mom, I'm at Hanna's. I'll be home for dinner. Love you Aria xxx_

Tears welled up in Ella's eyes. Turning away from the apartment block Ella hurried towards home, the shopping forgotten.

Aria opened the front door and frowned at the darkness within, she had expected her mother to be home. She knew Mike would be at lacrosse and her father was out of town for a few days at a conference. She'd come home for dinner so that her mother wasn't alone.

Walking towards the kitchen she jumped as she spotted Ella sat at the table, wine glass in hand.

"Jees mom you scared me, why are you sat in the dark? Is everything ok?" Aria asked confused, flicking on one of the kitchen lights. Placing her bag on the floor and her phone and keys on the table, Aria took a seat opposite her mother, noticing for the first time the tears in her mother's eyes. "Mom, what's the matter? You're scaring me right now?"

Ella reached across to the wine bottle, topping up her glass, before standing up and grabbing another one from the cupboard, filling it, she pushed the glass towards Aria.

Aria frowned at her mother, her parents allowed her wine occasionally at dinner, but never would they have encouraged her to drink like this with them.

"Aria, if you think you are old enough to stick your tongue down your teacher's throat and who knows what else, you are old enough to drink the damn wine with me." Ella's voice croaked.

Aria's face went pale as she gripped the edge of the table; the reality of what her mother had just said hit her.

"What's the matter Aria? Surely with all those _tutoring_ _sessions_ with your _English teacher_ would have taught you to form a full sentence, or were you too busy making out with each other to learn anything."

"Mom, it's not what you think." Aria whispered.

"Aria, don't even think about giving me that clichéd attempt at an excuse. It is what I think it is and you damn well know that. Get him over here Aria, now." Ella demanded as she sipped her wine.

Aria gulped and nodded, in some ways she was relieved that Ezra was going to be there with her for this. Shakily she picked up her phone and pushed a button to speed dial Ezra.

"Put him on speaker phone Aria."

"Hey I was just thinking about you, I miss you already." Ezra's voiced boomed happily from the phone in Aria's hand. Aria didn't know what to say. "Hun, are you there? What's going on?"

Aria swallowed, her mouth dry, "You're on speaker phone. Ummm I need you to come over to mine."

"Uhh ok, but what's wrong? Do you think that's wise?" Ezra asked confused.

"I think it would be a _very_ wise idea _Mr. Fitz_." Ella cut in.

A faint curse could be heard through the phone from Ezra.

"I'll be there in five minutes." Ezra finally stated, knowing their secret was up. He presumed Byron was not home or he figured there would be no discussion; there would have been a pounding on the door.

Aria sighed as she hung up the phone and placed it on the table. Forcing herself to look her mother in the eyes, Aria knew her defence needed to start.

"I'm sorry I lied, _we lied_, to you. It wasn't the right thing to do, we know that, but we felt it was necessary to maintain what we had. I'm not proud of lying to you, I know it's not the person you raised me to be, but you raised me to follow my heart, do things that make me happy.."

"Things that make you happy wasn't supposed to ever include _doing _your high school teacher Aria. I would have thought that was pretty clear."

"You're twisting my words."

"And you're twisting the perception of who I thought was my daughter right now." Ella countered.

The sound of the doorbell cut the silent tension that had enveloped the room.

"That'll be Ezra." Aria said standing up and heading to the door.

Ezra stood grim faced on the other side of the door; he had no idea what he was walking in to. During the drive over he had tried to pull his thoughts and arguments together but all his brain gave him was white noise.

Aria burst into tears at the sight of Ezra, he quickly stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, unconcerned about her parents temporarily.

"Hey, it's ok, I'm here." Ezra said soothingly as he stroked Aria's hair. He could feel her tears soaking his t shirt as she rested her head on him. "I love you, remember that ok."

Aria nodded before pulling back from Ezra slightly. "I love you too."

Ezra placed a kiss on Aria's forehead as he heard Ella clear her throat from her position in the kitchen. Placing a hand on Aria's lower back, the pair began their walk to the kitchen table. Pulling out chairs to sit opposite Ella, the kitchen table might as well have been a courtroom.

"How long has this been going on?" Ella asked, staring directly at Ezra. She knew in her heart that it had been going on for a long time. As soon as she had arrived home and sat thinking about what she had seen, the reality dawned on her that it had been Aria that was hugging Ezra the night they had driven past and Aria's New York Ezra was in fact Mr Fitz.

Ezra and Aria had had some discussions on how much information they were going to give her parents when the time came, but facing the questioning in reality meant they couldn't really lie anymore.

"We met before I moved here for my job. We never spoke about where Aria lived or where I was going to be working. It never crossed our minds that we would end up in the same classroom." Ezra responded, keeping his voice as steady and honest as he could.

"And this went on while you were her teacher?"

Ezra sighed. "In all honesty yes, it did."

"How could you let this go on, knowing she was your student, knowing that you were the adult in a position of responsibility, knowing that this was wrong? How could you not walk away, leave her alone?"

"I understand everything you are saying and yes, it was inappropriate of me to continue a relationship with Aria, I promise I never favoured her, I never let the school down, I never brought my relationship with Aria into the school. I assumed she was younger than me when we met but I never asked and nor did I feel I needed to. Can you imagine the odds of us ending up as teacher and student in the same school? We are four years apart, this would not be an issue in any other circumstance."

"But this is the circumstance you were in, you were her teacher, you should have walked away or ended it straight away. I should call the Principal right now and tell him what has been going on."

Ezra nodded solemnly. "I know I should have walked away, I tried, but at this late stage in a school year finding other teachers to step in is not easy. I felt I had a sense of duty to the school to fulfil what I said I would. As for ending it straight away.. I couldn't walk away from Aria either. I had a duty to her too."

"How could you have a duty to her? You had no requirement to carry on a relationship with my _teenage_ daughter. You barely knew her, and Aria, you know full well the difference between right and wrong, you knew this was wrong or you wouldn't have been lying to everyone for months."

"Mom, we couldn't just stay away from each other, it wasn't that simple." Aria pleaded.

"It is that simple Aria, how could you both have been selfish enough to think this was ok?"

"Mrs Montgomery, Ella" Ezra stuttered not knowing how to address the woman who had once been his colleague and in some senses a friend. "I couldn't walk away because.." Ezra took a deep breath, looking across at Aria as she too braced herself for the words he was about to say. "I couldn't walk away because Aria is my wife."

Ella felt that everything Ezra had just said occurred in slow motion and that she had not heard him correctly. Shakily she pushed her glass away from her. Surely she was drunk and had not just heard that her daughter, her 18 year old daughter was married.

"Aria, what is going on? What do you mean you're his wife? This can't be true."

Aria cleared her throat as the dryness once again caught her. "It is true, we met in Vegas."

"When the hell were you in Vegas Aria?" Ella yelled.

"When the girls and I said we went to stay at Spencer's cabin, well we actually went to Vegas, we wanted to celebrate Hanna's birthday. I met Ezra while we were there. Neither of us realised that we had gotten married until we left."

"What! How can you tell me that you knew nothing about this life changing moment? That you had married a stranger that you didn't even know that you'd see again. How could you be so stupid Aria? You're a child. I feel like I don't even know you right now?" Ella said, horrified at what she was hearing.

"Yes, it was stupid mom, insanely stupid, but I handled it, we handled it. I know that is no consolation but it was something that Ezra and I entered into and it was our problem to solve. We were adult enough to get into the mess, we had to be old enough to get out of it. I know you feel we should have told you and maybe we would have had our circumstances been different but we're here now, we didn't tell you, for right or wrong reasons."

"Ella, I promised Aria that I would sort the annulment out, I got a friend of mine to draw up the papers. I would never want to damage Aria's future or prevent her from having a proper wedding in the future."

"How very noble of you." Ella said sarcastically.

"Mom, please." Aria begged.

"No, it's fine, Ella you have every right to be mad at me, at us, but please try to understand that I had every intention of doing the right thing by Aria at all times. I know it looks like I was abusing my position with a student, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Yes we saw each other while I was a teacher, yes we could have, should have even, waited until the school year was over, but I fell in love with Aria, she was my wife, and selfishly I wanted to spend time with her. I will do everything I possibly can to make her the happiest most loved girl and if at any time Aria wants out in the future, yes I am going to fight for her but I would never let her stay in something she was not happy with."

"Mom, we both chose to not sign those papers. I know you think I am too young, too immature to be married, but think about it, I have handled this situation alone, I have kept my grades up at school, I have not let it affect me in any way. I have been trying to protect everyone involved."

"Aria, you have spent the whole of this year spinning lies and sneaking around, how is that mature?"

"Mom, we're just going round in circles. We did what we did, we are here now and we just have to accept what we chose to do and decide how to move forward. Our intention was always to tell you, we knew that we had to before I left for university."

"If you think I am going round in circles, just wait until your father finds out as I can tell you something, he won't be as willing to give you airtime as I have."

"Have you told him?" Aria asked nervously.

"Not yet, you're going to tell him." Ella said glaring right at Ezra.

Ezra nodded. "I'll tell him, I promise. But, can I respectfully ask if you want me to tell him now, or whether it would be better to wait until after the exams? We all have Aria's best interests at heart and I will do whatever you think I should."

Ella nodded. "I am not being dragged into lying to my husband for you both. He's back in a few days you can tell him then."

Ezra nodded. "I understand."

The sound of a key in the front door made them all jump. Mike barged his way through with his bags and equipment banging into every surface.

"Hi mom, any dinner left over I'm starving. Oh hi Mr Fitz, were you here tutoring Aria? That girl can't be helped at all." Mike smirked.

"Mike not now. Go shower and come back down for food please." Ella said, not in the mood to have Aria and Mike bicker right now.

"Jees, you're in a good mood." Mike said sulkily before heading upstairs.

"You should go." Ella said to Ezra as she stood up from the table.

"Thank you for giving me a chance to talk Ella. I know you don't like me right now, but one day I hope we can start over. I know it hurts to hear it, but I love Aria so much. I've risked everything for her and I know you are disgusted with me but just try and see that everything I did was done out of uncontrollable love for her, as a person and as my wife. I won't walk away from her unless she wants me to." Ezra knew he was pushing his luck but he wanted to make sure that he had stood some ground and made it clear that he was not going to be scared away from her. It was a bold move but he knew Ella would understand that as he was married to Aria there was always going to be that tie to bind them together.

Aria walked Ezra to the door, he placed a hand on her cheek and kissed her forehead, not wanting to push his luck by kissing her properly. "I love you." He whispered, "Stay strong ok?"

Aria nodded, trying not to start crying again. She returned to the kitchen, carrying her untouched wine to the sink and pouring its contents away as her mother watched.

"Thank you for listening mom, I know you're disappointed in me, but maybe one day you can give Ezra a chance. See what we have together. You said some people just know that someone is the one for them. You really liked him as a person, just please try and think of that and how I am lucky enough to have him in my life, he's the most kind, caring and considerate man you'd ever want to meet. Please don't write this off as something so awful and wrong when there is so much love and happiness between us." Aria pleaded.

Tears escaped from Ella's eyes as she listened to Aria. Nodding she reached forward and pulled Aria into a hug. She needed to feel her child in her arms, a child that seemed to no longer need her, a child that had a whole life she knew nothing about.

"I love you mom." Aria whispered.

**I think some of the comments fuelled this chapter in a way, obviously the fight has started and I hope the arguments I put forward are ones you would feel would be points that Aria and Ezra would have used themselves. I always feel that we should have seen Ella's conversation with Aria and Ezra in his apartment. To hear his justification etc.. I think with my story and the marriage element, he has a stronger justification than in the show for continuing his relationship with Aria while he was her teacher. Yes he was wrong to stay in the job, but then where is the drama if I had made him quit from day one for Aria.. Fingers crossed you feel the same :0) Until the weekend when hopefully I can smash out the rest. I think writing Byron's reaction is tougher than Ella. Bye for now... **


	21. Chapter 21

**Hello... thank you so much for all the love on the last chapter - reading it back now I am really pleased with it.. this one.. hmm I struggled. There are a couple of characters I struggle to write for Byron being one of them. I feel Ella was always willing to have a verbal argument over the relationship, whereas Byron is a lot more willing to shut down a conversation and not even entertain the idea of them as a couple. I'd say we are very very close to the end now, one, maybe two chapters left I think to tidy the ending. **

Aria prodded her food in the school cafeteria as the girls watched on with worried expressions on their faces.

"Realistically, I don't think your father is going to report Ezra. Surely he'd realise that by bringing attention to it he'd be condemning you to town gossip and judgement. He is not going to want that no matter how mad he is at Ezra." Spencer offered as an attempt to reassure Aria.

"No he'll probably condemn me to a life locked in my room or he'll kick me out." Aria replied miserably.

"Aria, he can't ground you once you have finished school, you are old enough to leave home anyway and I really can't imagine him kicking you out; your mother wouldn't let him." Emily reasoned, "I'm pretty sure you'll be grounded though."

Aria rested her head in her hands. "We were so stupid to get caught."

"I'm surprised you two kept your hands off each other for this long to be honest. Aria, whenever you told your parents it was going to be tough. I think your mother will come around to the idea easier than your father. She knows deep down Ezra is good person, plus didn't she think he was hot?" Hanna added.

"Hanna, really!? Not helping." Spencer said shooting Hanna a glare.

"I should call Ezra while I have a chance, I'll see you all later in class. Thanks for trying to help." Aria smiled slightly before heading out to find somewhere quiet to sit.

"Hey, how are you holding up?" Ezra asked as he answered on the first ring.

"Ok I suppose, I just wanted to hear your voice."

"I know, I hated leaving you last night. Did you talk any more after I'd left?"

"Not really, Mike was there which saved me I suppose. I just have to go straight home from school."

"I figured that would be the case. We'll manage though hun, no regrets ok? It's only a few weeks and we can leave for New York whenever you want. I just want to make sure you've mended your relationship with your parents as best we can before we leave. When is your father back?"

"Tomorrow night. Do you want to come over after school? I think Mike has practice again and my dad doesn't have any classes."

"I'm not sure '_want to'_ is the right wording but I'll be there, for us." Ezra said calmly. "So tell me, do you know if your father was ever on a wrestling team, boxing, anything like that? I might need to know these things now."

Aria chuckled, "Not that I'm aware of, but maybe you'd better stick behind me."

Ezra laughed. "I might be a wimp and take you up on that. I'm better with words than fists."

"And that is why I love you." Aria smiled. "I should go, I have class soon. I don't want to get detention to add to my punishments."

"Call me whenever you need to, I love you. Remember that. We will get through this, no matter what. Smile, you are so beautiful when you do."

Aria couldn't help but smile and redden at his comment. She would later find a single rose tucked under the windscreen wiper of her car at the end of the school day.

Ezra's heart thumped in his chest as he fought the wave of sickness that threatened to overwhelm him as he stood in front of the Montgomery house. Aria had text him to say she was home and to come over when he was ready. Inhaling one last time. He text Aria to say he was outside.

Aria rushed to the door before her parents realised Ezra was there, wanting any possible second of time with him to herself. A temporary wave of relief washed over her as she met his blue eyes, tears threatening to fall from her own. Moving to stand slightly outside, Aria pulled the door closed so they could not be seen, before stretching her arms tightly around his body.

"I needed this hug so much." Aria whispered.

"I know." Ezra choked, struggling himself not to cry as he placed light kisses on her hair as he stroked it.

Aria leaned back so that she could give Ezra a kiss, it was quick, not wanting to risk anything more, but they both knew the love it conveyed. Ezra wiped the tears from Aria's eyes and inhaled deeply again.

"Ok, let's get this over with, agreed?" Ezra asked trying to sound more confident than he felt.

Aria nodded reluctantly, holding both of Ezra's hands in hers.

The front door opened suddenly, causing Aria move away from Ezra.

"I've told your father that Ezra's here. You'd better come inside now." Ella stated firmly, holding the door wide open for them to enter.

"Oh hi Ezra, I haven't seen you in a while, how have you been?" Byron asked genuinely pleased to see him.

"I'm doing ok thanks." Ezra asked, feeling uneasy at the friendliness he knew wouldn't last long.

"Shame about the job at the high school, I hear you are tutoring Aria, I know she really appreciates it. It's great that you have stuck around, I thought you would want to head straight back to New York." Byron said as he bustled around pouring Ezra a glass of scotch. Ezra took the offered glass before placing it on the coffee table in front of him, not intending to touch it.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about why I stayed in town actually, it's why I came over this evening." Ezra began nervously.

"Oh are you wanting to stay in Rosewood? I could put a word in for you at the college if you want, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to meet with you."

"That's very kind, but.. no I wasn't intending on staying. Ok, how do I say this?"

"Say what? You're worrying me a bit here Ezra, you look very pale. Do you feel ok?" Byron asked concerned.

"Byron, let the man speak." Ella cut in.

"Well, what I have to talk to you about concerns Aria, about how we met actually." Ezra glanced at Aria who was sat next to him on the lounge.

"How you met? Why on earth would you need to talk to me about that? She would have been in your classroom when you met her?"

"Byron, please let Ezra speak." Ella broke in again, earning her a questioning look from Byron.

"I met Aria back in January this year, before I arrived here in Rosewood. Aria was with her friends and I was with my best friend."

"Aria, you never said you had met Ezra before? I still don't really understand why you need to tell me this now?"

"I'm, well we're, telling you this now because…" Ezra rubbed the back of his neck, his habit when he was uneasy. He looked Aria in the eye, instantly making him realise that this was worth the effort before turning back to meet Byron's eyes and speak with confidence. "I'm in love with your daughter. I have been since the moment I met her."

Byron sat with his mouth open unable to process what Ezra had just said. Ella wiped a tear from her eye at having to hear the truth aloud again.

"I'm sorry _what_ did you just say, because it sounded a lot like you saying you love my _teenage_ daughter who was a _student_ in your class." Byron said his voice becoming angrier as he spoke.

"Dad, I know this is a lot to take in, but please just try to keep calm so we can talk about this."

"You want me to keep _calm_ when I am being told that a _man_ who we thought was our friend, who was in a position of responsibility, has corrupted my teenage daughter and is sat here professing his love. I'm sorry but the only _calm thing_ I am about to do, is tell him to get the _hell _out of my house NOW!" Bryon stood to emphasise his point, causing Aria and Ezra to stand too.

"Dad, he did not corrupt me, we met before school started, we were already _linked_ to each other before Ezra even came to Rosewood." Aria argued, trying to choose her words carefully so as not to aggravate her father any more.

"Mr. Montgomery, Byron, I completely understand your anger at what we are telling you and we know it was wrong to keep it a secret, but our relationship was never simple and we wanted to work it out on our own. We certainly never expected to see each other again in the circumstances that we did and we never planned to fall in love with each other either. It happened and I cannot regret that."

"Well let me make your _relationship_ a hell of a lot simpler, you will leave this house and _never_ see Aria again or you leave me no choice but to call the authorities."

Ezra felt like he was sweating from every pore, though he had felt like that every time he faced Byron. Ezra knew he was going to have to stand his ground with Byron for him to have any chance of making him understand his relationship with Aria. Ezra reached down and gripped Aria's hand.

"Byron, with all due respect we both know you are not going to call the authorities on me. You know as well as I do that in doing so you would damage Aria's name and her chances at going to university."

"Where do you get the nerve to talk to me like this?" Byron countered.

"Byron I am not trying to dispute your authority as Aria's father, I understand and respect that. I know you will stop Aria from seeing me for the rest of the school term and we will accept that, but Aria will be moving to New York, with me.. as my wife."

"WHAT! Aria I forbid you to marry this man, I will report him to the police and you can just deal with the consequences of your actions. I never raised you to be a liar and maybe then you will see some sense on how sick this whole _relationship_ is."

"Dad, we're already married. Ezra and I met in Vegas, we married the day we met."

Ezra didn't have time to react before Byron's fist connected with his jaw. Aria and Ella screamed at the commotion. Ella rushed to hold her husband back as Aria put herself in front of Ezra.

"I can't even look at you anymore Aria" Byron said before turning to leave the house.

A tense silence settled over the room as they heard Byron's car pull out of the driveway.

Ezra's hand touched his lip as he tasted blood. His other hand remained firmly gripping Aria's.

"Aria, get Ezra an ice pack. I'll find something to clean his lip up." Ella said before leaving the room and heading upstairs.

Aria led Ezra to the kitchen, making him sit on a stool as she put ice cubes into a towel. Standing between his legs, Aria gently placed the pack on his jaw. Ezra flinched at the pain, his hands gripping Aria's waist.

"Hey, no crying, it's ok." Ezra said as he saw Aria about to burst into tears. "I've had worse beatings in my time on the football field, although that might have been because I was rubbish at football."

Aria let out a chuckle; Ezra never let her stay upset, he always tried to make her smile; she loved that about him.

Ezra stroked his fingers down Aria's neck to pull her necklace out from under her top. Smiling as he saw the ring emerge.

"I'll give you a proper wedding one day, I promise." Ezra said quietly.

Aria grinned before placing a kiss on Ezra's forehead. "I love you."

"Love you too. Now promise me you'll try and listen to your parents in the next few weeks ok, try and mend some bridges. They're good people Aria, they love you. They don't need to like me but don't shut them out, they are allowed to be upset and angry with us, we broke their trust. Just promise me you'll try?" Ezra said as he caressed Aria's cheek.

Aria nodded as tears started to fall, Ezra once again wiping them away as they fell. Ezra took the ice pack off Aria, placing it on the counter before pulling her into a tight hug.

Ella cleared her throat, she had been standing listening at the doorway. Aria stepped back from Ezra sheepishly.

"I brought you some stuff to clean your lip up." Ella stated as she placed the supplies on the bench.

"Thanks, is it ok if I use the bathroom to take care of it?" Ezra asked as he stood.

"Sure, there's a bathroom down the hall." Ella replied.

Ella and Aria stood staring at each other, neither knowing what to say.

"Is Dad going to be mad at you for not telling him you knew?" Aria asked quietly.

"Probably, but I can handle your father. He'll understand why I made you both tell him yourself, and that went as well as I expected it to."

"It was never going to go well."

"No, it's not really something you ever want your child to tell you, that she drunkenly got married to an older man and then add into that the fact that he is her teacher and I guess that is never going to be well received." Ella said with a slight smile. "He'll calm down Aria, I've had a couple of days. I don't condone it at all but there is not a lot I can do about it. I have to accept that and he will have to come to that conclusion too."

"Thank you mom." Aria said, before hugging her tightly.

"Is that your ring?" Ella asked, she had noticed Ezra pull the necklace out.

"Yeah, Ezra put it on the chain for me."

"Wow, that's an expensive ring, it's very nice."

"It wouldn't matter to me if it was plastic." Aria responded honestly.

"I know." Ella sighed.

Ezra re-entered the room, his lip now clean of blood. "I should go, I appreciate you letting me clean up Ella. I'm sorry that things had to happen this way. I'm happy to talk with you or Byron whenever you feel ready."

Ella nodded, unsure how she was meant to reply.

"I'll show you out." Aria said, lightly taking Ezra's hand so that they could say goodbye on their own.

Wrapping her arms around Ezra's waist, she knew she might not get a chance to see him again for a few weeks. Ezra stroked her hair.

"Remember what I've said hun, stay strong and time is going to fly by. I'm not going anywhere ok, you can talk to me whenever you want, it's the best thing right now if we respect your parents and stay apart for a few weeks."

"I know, I'll miss you."

"I might not miss you stealing all the sheets though, now I come to think about." Ezra smiled.

Aria laughed before leaning up to place a kiss gently on the edge of his lips.

"It's probably a good thing I have some time for my lip to recover too. It's too tempting to be around you." Ezra winked before hugging Aria close one last time and walking out the door, he looked back and smiled before he got into his car. "No regrets" he said aloud to himself as he pulled off.


	22. Chapter 22

**Helloooo.. I am seriously excited and sad as this is the last chapter..So proud of this piece of work, honestly cannot thank you enough for reading , reviewing and being so supportive. I know there are many of you who have commented from day one. You are all too kind. **

**I hope you enjoy the ending.. sweet and simple. **

**If more story ideas come to mind, I'll be back.. **

**All my best wishes to each and every one of you!**

**Bye for now.. :0)**

Byron returned home later that evening. Ella sat in the kitchen on her own nursing a glass of wine.

"Are the kids upstairs?" Byron asked as he pulled out a seat.

"Yes, they made themselves scarce." Ella said pouring Byron a glass of wine.

"Why didn't you say anything earlier, back me up? We can't let this man ruin our daughter's life."

"Because, I knew and I had already said my piece to them." Ella sighed. "I caught them together the other day and made them tell you themselves."

"You knew about this and you didn't tell me?!"

"Byron, be reasonable. I made them face up to this and tell you. They had to be the ones to deal with the consequences. Not me."

"How are you so calm about this?"

"Because whilst I might not like it, we cannot make this go away. We are not going to ruin Aria by reporting Ezra and to be honest what is that going to achieve. She's married to him, they were both old enough and stupid enough to do it."

"How can you choose to let him get away with this? The deception and lies, what kind of a sick man corrupts a teenager like this, our little girl?"

"Because whilst I don't condone the _relationship_ in any way, I can honestly say I do not believe that Aria is weak minded and would get herself into something she did not want to be in. She met him before he came here, he didn't start this while he was her teacher Byron, they were two people in a bar."

"I cannot believe you are defending him. He should have stopped it, he had a responsibility to."

"I know he did, but that doesn't change the fact they are married. They told me they got the annulment papers drawn up and didn't sign them."

"Because he's clouded her mind, made her promises. He's using her while he's in town for sex; it's all convenience. Just you wait and see."

"Byron, you can't jump to conclusions like that. You really think he would risk everything for _sex_ with Aria, because I can tell you there is a _long line_ of females in this town who'd be more than happy to help him out with that and they don't come with the baggage of being a high school teenager. I've seen the way he acts with Aria, he is the one pushing her to mend bridges with us, he is the one who stayed here to be with her, he loves her Byron."

"I can't believe you." Byron responded shocked at Ella's opinions.

"I don't like it Byron, but I am not going to lose my daughter over this. If her and Ezra are making this work and they stay married, we have to be able to accept that, because once she leaves this house, in what could be only 3 weeks time, she gets to choose whether she wants to see us again. It hurts Byron of course it does, but I'll be truly honest and say if he had never been her teacher and he was just the guy she was dating, wouldn't you think they were perfect for each other?"

"He's clouded your judgement too." Byron spat angrily before leaving the room.

Ella sighed, as tears trickled from her eyes. Aria slowly entered the kitchen; she had heard her parents arguing and had listened in.

"I'm sorry that you and dad are arguing mom. I never meant to hurt you both, I promise." Aria started crying too.

"I know honey, its just really hard watching your little girl make these adult mistakes and being helpless to have stopped them. Ezra is older than you and should have been the one to do the right thing, he was a teacher, he'd be fully aware of his responsibilities."

"Mom, we are both old enough to know right from wrong, so you have to pin the blame on me too. I am not a child anymore. Every decision we have taken has been made jointly and evenly. He's never pressured me into anything, he never treats me like a child and he sees me completely as his equal. You know he's a good person mom, we both know it was wrong for us to be together while he was teaching but we started out seeing each other to figure out how we would end it, not intending to want to be together for the rest of our lives. He didn't want to let the school down, and I promise you we really tried to keep our relationship out of school. I won't see him for the next few weeks, I promise, but I am moving to New York with him. I've already advised the university that his address will be my place of residence and turned down dorms."

Ella nodded sadly. "It's so hard to know you have made these life altering decisions and not told your family about them. What if it doesn't work out Aria? What then?"

"What if it does mom? I know you think I am crazy, throwing opportunities away, but I love Ezra, I won't miss out on anything, Ezra wouldn't let me. I promise you I am going to get my degree and get a job that I love at the end of it, Ezra supports that 100%. He's a teacher mom, he understands. He lives near campus, he owns his place outright, I am not going to be isolated or financially burdened. He is only four years older than me, we are so close in personality, please just try to remember what you thought of him before you knew all this. He is that person and more to me, he is not the twisted sicko dad is trying to make him out to be. Talk to Ezra mom, try to understand us, please, for me."

Aria reached over and hugged Ella tight. "I still need you mom, I always will."

Ezra nervously paced up and down his apartment, Ella had called him and asked if she could come over and talk. It had been a couple of days since he had been to the house; he had spoken to Aria since then and stuck to the promise of not seeing her. They had not said to her parents that they wouldn't talk and Aria had not had her phone confiscated.

Ella had decided to do as Aria had asked and try to talk to Ezra and understand more about their relationship. So unbeknownst her husband and Aria, she stood in front of the door to apartment 3B, trying to summon the courage to knock.

Ezra invited Ella in, nervously watching her assess his home as she ventured inside.

"Can I get you a drink?" Ezra asked, attempting to seem hospitable.

"A tea, thank you." Ella responded as she followed him towards his kitchen area, her eyes noticing evidence of Aria scattered around his apartment; a scarf hanging on the wardrobe, notes in Aria's curly handwriting stuck to the fridge, a pile of freshly folded laundry containing various items of her clothing. It was a strange sensation for Ella to see the evidence of her daughter's double life, a domestic life with an older man. A pile of her schoolbooks sat on the kitchen table.

Ezra noticed Ella looking at the books. "Umm, I put those there to remind myself to give them to you, Aria will need them to study from, she might not realise it but I'll drop the hint." Ezra tried to joke. "I'll find her bag before you go so you can carry them."

"Right, thanks. I'll make sure she gets them." Ella said uneasily.

Ezra carried the tea to his lounge, offering Ella the couch as he took the armchair. Ella perched on the edge, unable to relax.

"How's your lip doing?" Ella asked to break the tense silence in the room. She used to be able to talk to Ezra with complete ease.

"It's much better thank you for asking. I kind of expected it, deserved it maybe."

"I am not sure violence is the answer to any of this."

"I understand Byron's anger Ella, it's ok. He has every right to want me out of Aria's life and to dislike me, as have you, I just need you to forgive Aria for not telling you."

"How we handle this with Aria is a family matter… But, you are going to try and tell me that you and Aria are a family now aren't you?"

"I'm not going to insult your intelligence Ella by trying to claim that, we've only been together.. what six months or so. She talks to me Ella, so I am going to be the one who is picking up the pieces when she feels you aren't there for her. She doesn't deserve that. I know this isn't your average lie that we told, us getting married was not illegal, we were both old enough to enter into it, heat of the moment or not. I should have walked away from the job, I should have had enough respect for Aria and quit, but I didn't. I'm not proud that we hid it, but I will never regret marrying her. I will make it up to her, she'll get another wedding if she wants one, one that she's going to want you both to be at."

"What do your parents think of this?"

"My father passed away when I was young, and well my mother and I don't see eye to eye very often. She doesn't agree with me being a teacher."

"I might like her then, I don't agree with you being a teacher either… sorry that was too easy." Ella said with a slight smile, the old banter that she used to have with Ezra in the staffroom at work coming through.

"I have to agree that some of my better qualities might have been overshadowed lately." Ezra smiled. "My mother has barely worked a day of her life, she thinks she can buy her way out of everything. That is not who I want to be, my father would never have wanted me to be that way either. I will tell her about Aria, I have no issue with that, she knows I have a girlfriend, but whilst she will try and interfere, I won't let her. I envy what Aria has with you and Byron, I never had that growing up."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ella said with sincerity, it made her realise just how lucky her family was. "So Aria tells me you live by Columbia, what are you intending to do when you get back to New York?"

"Well, I can always make money writing for blogs and newspapers, I have done that before and have plenty of contacts. I have some meetings with editors lined up for some of my other work. I am not sure I will teach again straight away, but if something comes up I will consider it. I promise you Aria does not have to worry about money, I am lucky enough to own my apartment so what's mine is hers. I want to make sure I am around while she settles in to uni life and the city. My friends have already met her, so she'll have plenty of people around her."

"You know, I just wish you hadn't carried this on while you were her teacher, if you had just told us from the start and you hadn't taken the job, it still would have been a shock, but I would have been so happy that my daughter had met someone like you. I get why you two are attracted to each other, I just need some time and some evidence of seeing you together to forgive you for your history."

Ezra smiled, knowing he would be able to convince Ella in time that him and Aria belonged together. "I won't let you or Aria down. I promise. She means the world to me."

As Ella stood to leave, Ezra struggled with whether to ask Ella when he might be able to see Aria again. "So, I was wondering if it would be ok for me see Aria when her exams finish? I'd obviously like to see her to plan our move and well..I miss her."

"There is little I can do to stop you really. Byron, well, I can't see him coming round to the idea any time soon. That is going to take longer than the time Aria has left in Rosewood really, just be more discreet around him. I appreciate you staying away from her for now. She needs to concentrate on her exams, not arguing with Byron over having seen you."

"I understand, and thank you, for coming over to talk and for letting me see her." Ezra said trying to not grin at the news that he could see Aria again soon.

Aria sat staring at the clock in the exam room, her final English paper sat complete in front of her, there was five minutes to spare. She had confidently answered the questions set, smiling to herself that despite getting distracted by Ezra many times when she had studied with him, she had managed to learn so much from him. She found herself nervous at the prospect of seeing him again in a matter of minutes, it had been the longest three weeks without him, but from today they could just be themselves. Their whole life together could start.

"High school is officially over!" Hanna shouted, unable to hide her excitement.

"I know, we survived it, I might even miss the place.. briefly." Spencer joked.

"So when are you seeing Ezra?" Emily asked Aria.

"He's meeting me later, he wouldn't tell me what he had planned."

The girls smiled, they knew what Ezra had planned, to others it might not have seemed a special evening, but they all knew it was exactly what they all wanted to do. It was just going to be a simple evening of the girls along with Ezra, Caleb, Paige and Hardy going for dinner in town. Ezra knew Spencer and Hardy had kept in contact since New York and he had arrived earlier in the day, the only difference being he was staying with Spencer rather than on Ezra's couch.

As Aria stepped out of the school building she caught sight of Ezra leaning against her car with a bunch of flowers. She smiled before being unable to control herself from running towards him.

Ezra's heart pounded as soon as he saw Aria, his mind a mixture of happiness and relief at finally being able to see her. He had been unable to wait until she had left school before meeting her; they were now able to be together. He braced himself as soon as he saw Aria break into a run, placing the flowers on the bonnet and picking her up as soon as she reached him, their lips and tongues connecting straight away. Ezra's hands buried themselves in her hair, holding her close as Aria's hands gripped his neck, deepening the kiss as much as she could.

Other students had started to notice the pair, who were too lost in their own world to care what was happening around them. Ella stood by the school doors watching the scene as if in slow motion, she stopped herself from smiling at how happy Aria looked, as she realised that Aria had just allowed everyone to see her with Ezra. She was disappointed but knew that people would find out eventually anyway.

Placing Aria gently back on the ground, Ezra stroked her hair away from her face to look her directly in the eyes.

"I've missed you so much." Ezra said, his eyes beginning to water. "I love you Aria Fitz".

Aria smiled "I love you too. It's just you and me now, forever."

Ezra leant down to kiss her again. "Congratulations hun" He whispered before his lips met hers.

"Get a room you two!" Hanna cheered as they approached the couple, the other girls laughing along.

Ezra broke his kiss with Aria, before wrapping his arms around her, unable to keep his hands off her after having not seen her in so long.

"Hey girls, congratulations on finishing high school! It's nice to see you all."

"Well I think everyone has now seen you Fitzy." Hanna commented.

Ezra finally noticed the groups of students staring at him with Aria. He shrugged and smiled, "Let them stare, I am too happy to care right now." He noticed Ella stood on the school steps watching them, their eyes met, Ezra smiled before she turned to walk away.

"So, I'll call you later, see where you all are, umm Ezra and I, umm we're.." Aria said stumbling over her words.

"You're going to get naked, yep we realise that." Hanna cut in.

"What? We're ummm." Aria replied reddening as she spoke.

"What? It's pretty obvious what you two are going to do as soon as you are off school property. Or have you already done it on school property?" Hanna continued.

"Han! No we have not!"

"Girls, Aria will call you later, we're leaving now." Ezra smiled, Hanna's bluntness amused him as always. "So that yes, we can get naked." He added with a wink, causing all the girls to laugh and whistle as they got into Aria's car, Ezra taking her keys to drive.

Aria and Ezra met up with the group later in the evening at an Italian restaurant after spending the past few hours completely attached to one another. Ezra had had to drag Aria out of bed and into the shower to get ready to go out, she had wanted to stay in and spend more time together. Ezra knew that she would love being out with the girls once they got there, convincing her they would have plenty of time to themselves afterwards. Ezra had run his plans past Ella, and Aria had mentioned to her mother that she was going to see Ezra after the exams. They had both agreed to not to tell Byron for now; he was surviving by ignoring Ezra's existence. Refusing to mention his name or truly look Aria in the eye when he spoke to her.

The girls had spent the evening taking photos with each other and sharing stories from their time in school. Ezra and Aria enjoyed being able to be in the photos with everyone else. They had finally got their _normal_ relationship.

"So when are you heading to New York guys?"

"Well, we are going to pack over the weekend and then we're going to drive my car to New York. Ezra's sold the car he bought here, he has one in New York so we'll just take mine. Stop a few places on the way."

"You're not staying for the summer?" Hanna asked upset.

"No, it's just easier for us to be ourselves in New York, whilst my mum is thawing to the idea of us, my dad is not budging right now. I'm not going to keep hiding our relationship when we don't need to. You guys can come and visit though."

"Definitely you are all welcome whenever you want." Ezra replied. "I'm sure between us and Hardy, we can accommodate you all." Ezra smirked at Hardy, whose arm was draped around Spencer's shoulder.

"Hun, should I pack all my books?" Aria asked as she sat on her bedroom floor surrounded by piles of boxes and bags.

"You can bring whatever you want, we have room and we can ship them with my furniture, although looking at all these clothes, maybe I need to think about turning one of the bedrooms into a wardrobe." Ezra ducked as Aria threw one of her teddy bears at him.

Ella had let Ezra come over to help Aria pack, Byron had made an excuse to go into his office and do some marking so he did not have to see them together.

Ezra sat back on Aria's bed surveying the mayhem, he didn't want to go through her things until she told him to, Aria smiled as she saw him cuddling her teddy bear and leaning back on her pillow. Abandoning her position on the floor she crawled up the bed to hover over him.

"That's my favourite teddy you know, I used to sleep with him between my legs."

"It's pretty weird that I am jealous of a teddy bear right now, I might need to demote him from being in the bed from now on."

"I think I can live with that." Aria whispered as she lowered herself to kiss Ezra.

Ezra broke away from the kiss as it began to spiral out of control. "I really don't think this is a good idea Aria."

"No one's home, we have the place to ourselves, my dad is at work and won't come back until he knows you are gone and mom is watching Mike play lacrosse.." Aria said as she teased Ezra, pressing herself close to him, biting his ear.

"Lock your door." Ezra said as Aria leapt off the bed to close and lock her door. Ezra sat and removed his t-shirt before she had returned to her previous position. "You are determined to get us into trouble" Ezra said as he gave in to Aria.

"No, I am just determined that this bed gets christened once in its life, and by you and me." Aria joked.

Aria and Ezra sat on the high stools in the kitchen giggling as they ate ice cream, Aria had smeared it on Ezra's face before kissing it away. Aria's room was packed ready for shipping and for packing in her car in the morning. They jumped apart as they heard the front door open and Ella enter. Aria wiped the remaining ice cream from Ezra's face.

"Hi, so are you done packing?" Ella asked as she entered the room.

"Yep, all organised. I've left some stuff if that's ok."

"Of course it is, this is always your home too." Ella smiled sadly, the reality that her daughter was leaving home hitting her hard.

"I should get going, I have some packing to finish up and I will come round in the morning to get your stuff. I'll take your car with me if that's ok?" Ezra asked.

"Sure, I won't need it." Aria said hopping off the stool and standing with Ezra to walk to the door with him.

"Thanks for letting me help Aria pack Ella, she'd have been here all month otherwise."

"Hey!, That's not fair." Aria laughed as she jokingly pushed Ezra.

"Hun, you spent 90% of the time reminiscing and playing with your childhood toys, I thought we'd never finish."

"Well who knew you'd get jealous of the time I spent playing with my teddy bear." Aria smirked causing Ezra to redden.

Ella watched on confused at what had just passed between the pair, not wanting to give airtime to the thought of what they had done while no one was home. She had to admit she liked their relaxed interaction.

Aria walked Ezra to the front door, handing him her car keys on the way.

"I wish I was staying with you tonight." Aria sulked.

"Hey, you get me forever from tomorrow." Ezra said as he put his finger under Aria's chin to make her eyes meet his. "Tonight is about you having time with your family ok. They want to be able to say goodbye and I am not going to make your father uneasy by being there. He should get some time with you on his own, from tomorrow he knows that we come as a package deal, where you go I go. Give him tonight, for me."

Aria nodded, she loved how Ezra was so considerate and knew how important it would be for her to have this family time despite him wanting her for himself.

"I'll see you tomorrow then, one more sleep..well I won't sleep." Aria babbled.

"You'd better sleep tonight, I am expecting you to keep me entertained while I drive tomorrow." Ezra joked. "Call me later."

Aria nodded before kissing Ezra goodbye, biting her lip and smiling as she watched him walk away. She really got lucky she thought to herself.

"I'm beginning to understand why you love him." Ella said from the kitchen as she watched Aria continue her daydream.

Aria grinned before launching herself at her mother to hug her.

"Thank you for saying that." Aria whispered.

The next day, Ezra pushed the boot of Aria's car closed, it was crammed with the stuff she said she didn't want to risk shipping. Her favourite teddy sat strapped in the back seat to tease Ezra.

Aria stood with her parents and Mike by the front door. Ezra approached wanting to say goodbye before giving Aria some privacy to say her own farewell.

Ezra stood in front of Mike and shook his hand before looking Byron in the eye and offering his hand to him. He could see the hesitation in his eye but he gripped Ezra's hand and shook it.

Ezra exhaled at having got the worst out of the way, although they hadn't spoken, the handshake had broken down some barriers.

Ezra smiled at Ella who had tears in her eyes. "Ella, thank you for everything, I really appreciate all you did and I really enjoyed working with you. I hope I get to see you again soon."

Ella nodded before pulling Ezra into a hug. "Look after my baby girl for me" she whispered.

Ezra nodded before, placing his hand on Aria's back. "I'll wait by the car hun, take your time."

Aria hugged her brother; they were close despite Mike's attempts to seem too cool for his sister. "Don't let them get to you ok? I'm sorry I put you in this situation" Aria said knowing he would be left behind to deal with the gossip about his sister and a teacher.

"It's ok, I can handle them. I won't let them bad mouth you." Mike smiled back.

Aria moved to her mother who was wiping tears from her eyes. "I love you mom. Please think about coming to stay in a few weeks. I want you to see where I will be living."

"I will baby girl. Look after yourself and Ezra. Be happy ok?"

Aria nodded her own tears flowing now as she hugged her mother tight.

Byron stood struggling to not well up himself, as much as he was mad with Aria and Ezra, his heart was still breaking that she was leaving home.

Aria moved to hug her father. "I love you dad. I'm sorry I hurt you."

"I know you are. We'll be ok. Just look after yourself and achieve your dreams."

"I will. I promise."

Aria pulled back from her family and waved as she walked backwards towards the car. Ezra opened her door for her, wiping some tears from her eyes before she got in.

Ezra placed his hand on Aria's as they pulled out of her drive way. They were officially together in every sense from this moment on.

A little over a week later, Ezra pulled Aria's car into his garage, Aria snoozed unaware of them having reached their destination. A week of driving and stopping off in various places had taken its toll on her. Ezra smiled as opened her door and reached down to pick her up.

"Hey you." Aria said sleepily.

"Hey, we're home."

Aria beamed a smile. "Are you intending to carry me the whole way?"

Ezra nodded planting a kiss on her lips. "I think you'll find it's a tradition to carry your wife over the threshold."

Aria laughed but was more than happy to let him carry her, it gave her the opportunity to kiss his cheek and neck on the way.

Entering the apartment, Ezra immediately took Aria to the bedroom, carefully placing her in the centre of the bed. "Welcome home Mrs. Fitz"

"I love you" Aria managed to say as she kissed him softly.

Ezra pulled back and smiled at Aria, "We've forgotten something."

Aria frowned looking up at Ezra unsure what he meant. Ezra bit his lip as he reached down to the necklace that Aria wore, undoing the chain and removing her ring. He reached into his own jean pocket and pulled his wedding ring he had placed there earlier. He had held off putting Aria's ring on until this point.

Aria felt butterflies in her stomach as Ezra caressed her hand before slipping the ring on to her finger. She held Ezra's hand and slid his own ring on.

Their fingers entwined. Linked forever.


End file.
